Oman’s Be’ah and OQT sign agreement to decarbonize waste management: Oman’s OQ Trading (OQT) — a state-owned international energy and commodity-trading company — signed a cooperation agreement with state-owned solid waste management firm Oman Environmental Service Holding Company (Be’ah) on Tuesday to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Oman’s waste management industry.

The scope: The agreement creates a framework for the two organizations to design and develop decarbonization projects in waste management and waste-to-energy, Omani publication Muscat Daily reports. No information was given about potential investments in these projects or their size.

How will they do it? Potential areas of collaboration include landfill rehabilitation projects to reduce biogas and methane emissions, Muscat Daily notes, which involves sealing off a landfill, collecting and treating landfill gas and revegetating the area.

Carbon credit schemes could be on the menu: OQT and Be’ah might also participate in recycling credit systems, Muscat Daily notes. Recycling credit schemes give incentives for the collection and recycling of waste by allowing businesses or households and third party collectors to generate “credits” according to the amount of waste collected and recycled.

Carbon market revenues: OQT and Be’ah hope to generate revenues by engaging with international compliance and voluntary carbon markets. Carbon trading puts a price tag on polluting activities by allowing companies to buy and sell carbon credits that are tied to their emissions.

Be’ah is already developing a waste trading platform: The platform will offer an online auction and allow trading in recyclable solid waste, the Oman Daily Observer said in September, as we have previously noted. It will also see a ticker displaying local prices for waste materials. Local recyclers usually opt to ship their recyclable waste abroad due to higher market prices, instead of recycling and turning it into higher-value products at home, the publication said.