I.A.CO proudly announces its participation as subject technical experts in a PwC’s project team recently appointed by DG REFORM of the European Commission to undertake a “Livestock waste and animal by-product management” project in Cyprus.
This project aims at providing technical assistance to the Cyprus national authorities to apply the principles of Circular Economy in a complex waste stream causing significant environmental problems, while presenting significant opportunities for further greening of the economy such as GHGs emissions’ reductions, upgrading the country’s Renewable Energy production through Greener Sources such as biomass, while improving the Bioeconomy in rural areas.
The project includes the implementation of Circular Economy policy principles into the existing waste management infrastructure and approaches, as well as in the legislative and regulatory framework, in order to overcome significant obstacles such as:
- Lack of capacity from the governmental bodies due to their need for experience and know-how when it comes to the design of livestock waste management facilities and the setup of the technical requirements for managing waste streams, such as animal by-products and determining the optimal management method of the residues digestion resulting from treatment processes, such as the high-salinity effluent.
- Lack of expertise on collecting and subsequently evaluating field data for the development of the facilities parameters (e.g., estimation of the waste quantities which are to be treated, future projections and effluent quantities).
- The current legislative framework for manure and fallen stock, which although it is implemented in a satisfactory manner, mostly focuses on human and animal safety, and not on the environmental aspects of the problem, especially in heavily polluted areas throughout Cyprus.
- Lack of knowledge and capacity of national authorities and the relevant stakeholders, including the farmers, on how to better integrate the management of pollution, waste, and energy in a coherent and sustainable manner.
As per the service contract, the MOA’s capacity in relation to the following functions should be enhanced to enable the MOA to meet the country’s ambitious climate targets, overcome the aforementioned obstacles and meet the RRP requirement (the adoption of a pilot project for ‘establishing management facilities with biogas production units for livestock waste and other animal by-products in the Orounda region as established in the Cyprus RRP under investment 13).
- National strategy for the management of livestock waste and other animal by-products,
- Legal and governance framework covering the livestock waste management and other animal by-products as well as the renewable energy production.
- Change management.
- Communication and training plan.
Through this technical assistance project, expertise and know-how will be provided to the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development, and the Environment together with the capacity to manage the implementation of Sub-Component 3.1.4 – Circular Economy – “Orounda livestock waste and animal by-product management facilities with a biogas production plant” under the Cypriot Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP). In combination, the investment aims to serve the utilization of ABPs to produce energy through biogas production.
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