From Household Decisions to Global Networks: Biogas and the Allure of Carbon Trading in Nepal

^*The author would like to thank Mr. Devendra Neupane for his valuable contributions as a field assistant and translator. This work is based on research funded in part by a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant BCS-0902865, Fulbright Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Award, Society of Woman Geographers National and Pruitt Fellowship, and a Juran Doctoral Award and Fellowship.

Abstract

Nepal has more than 250,000 household biogas digesters that replace firewood with methane for most cooking needs, thus conserving forest resources while reducing indoor air pollution, reducing workloads for energy procurement, and providing a fertilizer slurry by-product. Biogas is also an approved clean development mechanism that reduces carbon emissions, creating a potential revenue stream for the government from global carbon trading markets through aggregating household biogas plants into larger projects for carbon trading. This article traces the shift to biogas as a neoliberal development strategy in Nepal by exploring the connection between biogas as a household energy decision and global carbon trading.

尼泊尔拥有超过二十五万座家庭生质沼气厌氧发酵槽, 用甲菀取代柴火来满足大部份的烹饪需求, 因而保存了森林资源, 同时降低室内的空气污染、减少能源取得的工作量, 并提供了料浆副产品做为肥料。生质沼气同时被认证实为可降低碳排放的乾淨发展机制, 并可透过将家户的生质沼气製造厂汇整至更大型的计画中以进行碳交易, 在全球碳交易的市场中, 为政府创造一笔潜在的税收来源。本文透过探讨生质沼气做为家户能源决定与全球碳交易之间的连结, 追溯尼泊尔转向生质沼气做为新自由主义发展的策略。

En Nepal hay más de 250.000 hogares que utilizan digestores de biogás para remplazar la leña con metano en la mayoría de las necesidades de cocina, ayudando así a conservar los recursos forestales, al tiempo que reducen la contaminación interna del aire, reducen la carga de trabajo relacionada con la provisión de energía y generan en la lechada un subproducto fertilizante. El biogás es también un mecanismo de desarrollo limpio aprobado que disminuye las emisiones de carbono, creando una corriente de ingresos potenciales para el gobierno a través de los mercados globales compensatorios de carbono, al integrar las plantas domésticas de biogás con proyectos del comercio de carbono de mayor envergadura. En este artículo se evalúa el cambio a biogás como estrategia neoliberal de desarrollo en Nepal, explorando la conexión entre el biogás como un tipo de decisión doméstica relacionada con la energía y el comercio global de carbono.

Key Words::

• biogas
• carbon trading
• clean development mechanism
• neoliberalism
• Nepal

关键词::

• 生质沼气
• 碳交易
• 乾淨发展机制
• 新自由主义
• 尼泊尔

Palabras clave::

• biogás
• comercio de carbono
• mecanismo de desarrollo limpio
• neoliberalismo
• Nepal

Notes

^*The author would like to thank Mr. Devendra Neupane for his valuable contributions as a field assistant and translator. This work is based on research funded in part by a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant BCS-0902865, Fulbright Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Award, Society of Woman Geographers National and Pruitt Fellowship, and a Juran Doctoral Award and Fellowship.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shaunna Barnhart

SHAUNNA BARNHART is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at Allegheny College, Meadville, PA 16335. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include environmental governance and political ecology with a specific focus on the productive use and contentious politics of waste including biogas for energy and biosolids for fertilizer, with a geographic focus in Nepal and the United States.