Executive Summary - Final report of the project (June 2007)

The CO2 Managers for the Industry in the People's Republic of China Project was implemented for the duration of 24 month between 04 May 2005 and 03 May 2007. The European Commission by the means of the Asia Pro Eco II Programme provided co-financing for the project, additional financial resources came from the Ministry of Science and Technology in China and the Austrian development agency as well as the partners who implemented the project. The applicant and main co-ordinator for the project was Centric Austria International, who had teamed up with the China Energy Research Society and Clean Technology Centre in Cork, Ireland.

As a primary result of the project 26 Chinese experts achieved the qualification as a ‘CO2 Manager & Trainer?and received a certificate issued by MOST and CAI during the final workshop.

As means to achieve this a total of five training blocs were conducted, of which four took place in China and one in Europe, several long term CO2 management project were designed and implemented in co-operation between the CO2 managers and the European experts and a final conference was implemented at the end of the project duration.

As secondary result from the project a total of more than 50 CDM projects was initiated or assisted with an estimated total of CO2 reductions of 90,000,000 tons annually. According to the project objective to understand CO2 in a wider meaning than CDM the Chinese experts were using their knowledge in projects related to energy efficiency, energy conservation and renewables development, which lead to an additional not yet quantified amount of CO2 emission reductions. Especially the study tour in Europe led to several contacts between European companies and Chinese experts resulting in joint CDM activities.

Another secondary result was the training efforts undertaken by the CO2 managers. It was an objective of the project to train the CO2 managers as trainers for other experts in China. During the project life time the CO2 managers did introduce the concept of CO2 management or further trained a combined 3.000 additional Chinese experts in CO2 management throughout China.

To sustain and institutionalise all these activities, the Chinese CO2 managers have concluded on being organised in the CO2 alumni network, which was established formally during the final workshop.

Throughout the project the spirit and understanding among the project partners and between the project partners and the CO2 managers was high and several longer lasting co-operations have formed during the two year period.

Overall the project has achieved its objectives in most areas and over-achieved them in quite a few. The co-operation in the project team and the interaction with the group of CO2 managers has been excellent and is still ongoing.