LAND Bank of the Philippines and Germany’s KfW Bankengruppe have entered into an agreement to develop a mini-hydro plants program of action under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol.

The program is the third of its kind under LandBank’s Carbon Finance Support Facility, which provides not only financing for the mini-hydro plants but also services toward their registration as CDM projects.

KfW will purchase more than 1,000,000 Certified Emission Reductions that the mini-hydro program will generate until 2020.

The program is expected to foster sustainable development by promoting renewable energy plants in the Philippines, and to accelerate investments in mini-hydropower.

“We are pleased to partner with KfW on this project that will help mitigate the effects of climate change. This is in line with Land Bank’s priority program for energy efficiency and environmental protection,” said Gilda Pico, the state-owned lender’s president and chief executive.

The POA involves drawing up measures that are coordinated and implemented voluntarily by private or public entities that implement policies or measures leading to green house gas emission reductions.

The projects that would be included in this program are mini hydro plants of up to 15 megawatts capacity. Bernhard Zander, director of KfW Carbon Fund, said the promotion of programmatic CDM is of strategic importance to the lender.

“KfW supports the implementation of these programs worldwide. Considering POAs as a means to scale up the CDM and eventually rendering a mold for future sectoral mechanisms, the capacity building and experiences from implementing POAs will provide an essential catalyst for national and international policies on climate change,” Zander said.

Aside from the mini-hydro program, Land Bank is also developing CDM programs for animal waste and landfill gas to energy projects in partnership with the World Bank.