Kathmandu, December 29:

At a time when government officials are readying to take a policy decision to mix ethanol with petrol, environmentalists have urged the government to put the idea on hold for sometime and make it environment-friendly so that Nepal could earn financial benefits from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

The CDM is a process, in which developed countries pay compensation to poor countries for the former’s production of Green House Gases.

“Though late, it was a welcome move of the government to make a policy on mixing ethanol with petrol. But we can win much more if we make the policy more environment-friendly,” Megesh Tiwari, a research officer at Winrock International Nepal, told this daily.

“Nepal will be qualified to claim $750 a day (Rs 17.5 million a year) from the developed countries if we can reduce the use of petrol by 30,000 litres a day by mixing ethanol with it,” he said.

Use of 30,000 litres of ethanol means reducing the use of petrol by the same amount and reducing the emission of carbon dioxide by 75,000 kg. Generally, the polluting country ‘buys’ the credit of carbon at $ 7 to $11 per tonne of carbon.

To earn the carbon credits by using ethanol, the whole process of ethanol production, including the use of fertiliser and other cultural practices in growing the plants that generate ethanol must be environment-friendly and should not contribute to the generation of greenhouse gases.

“For this, before actually going for mixing ethanol with petrol, it would be better to formulate strict regulations on ethanol production and thereby contribute to earn resources through CDM,” he said.