Assessing the potential impact of the CO_2 performance ladder on CO_2 emission reduction

摘要

The aim of this research is to assess the potential impact of theCO_2 Performance Ladder on CO_2 emission reduction. The CO_2Performance Ladder is a new green procurement scheme thathas been adopted by several public authorities in the Netherlands;it is a staged certification scheme for energy and CO_2management. The achieved certification level gives companiesa certain competitive advantage in contract awarding procedures.While the scheme has been widely adopted by companiesin the construction industry, other types of companies inthe supply chain of the commissioning parties also participate.Currently, more than 190 companies participate in the scheme.The aggregate CO_2 emissions covered by the scheme are around1.7 Mtonnes, which corresponds to almost 1 % of nationalgreenhouse gas emissions in the Netherlands. Since the introductionof the scheme the total CO_2 emissions have decreasedsubstantially. Nevertheless, these emission reductions should beinterpreted with caution since emission reductions are dominatedby a few companies and are affected to a large extent byeconomic activity. Companies participating in the scheme haveset different types of CO_2 emission reduction targets with varyingambition levels. The projected impact of these targets onCO_2 emissions is in the range of a 0.5 %–1.3 % absolute emissionreduction per year, with a most likely value of 1.1 %. The CO_2Performance Ladder can therefore make a substantial contributionto achieving the CO_2 emission reductions for non-ETSsectors in the Netherlands up to 2020.