Supporting our customers with transitional energy solutions
We have a strong trading presence across all main compliance markets and an extensive portfolio of carbon projects, from clean-burning renewable household fuels in Kenya to sustainable farming and rangeland rejuvenation in Southern Africa.
With more than 19 years of experience, we make sizeable investments in low-carbon projects and provide reliable routes to market for high-quality carbon credits. Leveraging Vitol’s global reach and extensive energy knowledge we are able to offer a range of carbon offset and removal solutions.
We are developing high-quality carbon reduction and removal projects across the globe, and are currently financing and supporting initiatives that will offset or remove more than 90mMTCO₂e by 2030.
We only pursue projects that have a high social impact and tangible co-benefits for people and the environment.
This means that as well as the climate benefits of avoided emissions, our projects seek to improve the quality of life in the local communities we operate in.
Investing directly in a project is the best way to assure a project’s quality and optimise a project’s design. All of our projects are certified by leading voluntary offset standards ensuring our carbon credits are high-quality.
Our product range includes;
- CORSIA
- EUAs
- UKAs
- Voluntary offsets
“Our rigorous approach doesn’t change and is something that we are justifiably proud of…due diligence is key to deciding which projects we get involved with, and ensures that they make a valuable impact.”
Michael Curran, head of carbon & environmental products
Interview with Michael Curran, head of carbon & environmental products
But more than that, in order to encourage investment, there needs to be certainty, stability and clarity.
Where this happens, for example in South Africa – and where Vitol is invested in a number of projects for this very reason - you get traction because companies can invest with a clear understanding of the regulations, project structure, value of credits and audit trail. The rest is risk which we’re well versed in managing.
Our rigorous approach doesn’t change, and is something that Vitol is justifiably proud of. Even in this nascent market, due diligence is key to deciding which projects we get involved with, and ensures that they make a valuable impact.
There are already lots of domestic trading pools in countries like Chile or Vietnam that are working well. By adding Article 6 (when it is finalised), or a bilateral agreement, international partners can participate in these helping to strengthen and underpin these markets.
And Article 6 will be an important tipping point for international and project-based carbon trading. More and more countries are putting the infrastructure in place to become net exporters and enable a burgeoning global market. We are hopeful that final agreement on Article 6 will be reached soon.
This is signalled not only by recent announcements of the sort between Sweden and Zambia, but also the number and variety of similar bilateral agreements between a range of host and buying countries over the past few years from across the globe.
This means that once Article 6.2 is agreed we should see a significant acceleration in this market. And even if 6.2 is not finalised at the next COP, these bilateral agreements will continue apace as countries use the same structures to develop carbon credit/project solutions as part of their Paris obligations.
Case Study
Vitol Aviation supplies the industry’s leading brands, delivering jet fuel into wing at circa 150 airports across the globe
As a valued partner to the airline sector, we are supporting its energy transition through our participation in the CORSIA global offsetting scheme as well as investing in additional sustainable solutions.
Case Study
Xuancheng composting project, Anhui Province, China
This Phase I and Phase II project (VCS2864, VCS2866), began in 2020, and is designed to treat the manure from local chicken farms and biomass waste residue, such as straw, plant ash and rice husk, to generate organic fertilizer. Located in Xuancheng City, Anhui Province, each project introduces a new set of fermentation and production lines to generate fertilizer while avoiding methane emissions. This is achieved through limiting the aerobic conditions during the manure and biomass residue composting process. Both projects are invested and owned by Xuancheng Nanyang Biotechnology Co., Ltd. An estimated 78,000 tonnes of manure and 19,500 tonnes of biomass waste residue can be treated annually, totalling 97,500 tonnes of waste, all of which can be composted aerobically for this project. This will result in 53,312 tCO₂e emissions being removed annually, reducing harmful GHG in the atmosphere.
Case Study
Renewable cookstoves in Kenya
One of our largest projects in Africa seeks to avoid carbon emissions from domestic cooking by providing low-cost, clean-burning ethanol cookstoves to almost a million households across Kenya.
Over 2.8 billion people in the world still cook using some form of biomass such as charcoal or wood. Improving access to more efficient domestic fuels which emit less CO₂ when burnt reduces household pollution and decreases deforestation rates. To help address this, we are partnering with local organisations to distribute fuel efficient cookstoves across Kenya, South Africa, Zambia and Rwanda, with more projects in the pipeline. So far, we have distributed over 1.6 million cookstoves in these countries. Our cookstove portfolio has the potential to generate in excess of 6 million tCO₂e of emission reductions per year.
Case Study
Enabling sustainable farming and rangeland rejuvenation in Africa
The adoption of sustainable farming methods across three catchment areas in the Drakensberg escarpment in South Africa will offset 1.5 million tCO₂e per annum. This will be achieved through improved carbon sequestration in the soil and reduced methane from improved cattle health.
The programme is aimed at sequestering soil carbon, reducing the loss of soil carbon, and reducing cattle methane production in rural grazing lands by retraining and monitoring rural farmers in how they herd their cattle.
The programme utilises the Herding for Health (H4H) Grazing Model and is aimed at intensive grazing of veld areas followed by rest for veld restoration, and includes tools such as fire management, reseeding, and alien invasive clearing. H4H integrates grazing, conservation, pre risk reduction, and soil carbon sequestration via herder and livestock management. As an added social benefit, the rural farmers involved in the programme benefit from income from improved livestock sales and carbon profit distribution.
