Welcome to the first edition of our brand new NGO Newsletter!

‘Watch This! NGO views on the CDM’ will appear quarterly in English, Spanish and Hindi with campaign updates and opinion pieces from around the world.

This month, the projects registered in the CDM hit for the first time the 4000 mark and another 1000 projects are expected to knock the doors to climate finance before the end of the year. This is particularly important because 2012 is the last year new CDM projects from emerging economies such as China and India can register and be eligible for sale in the European Union. We therefore expect a rush in registration that is likely to see substandard projects trying to slip into the EU carbon market before the door is closing. We will therefore mobilise our network members around the world to keep watching CDM projects and to highlight suspicious developments. Increased understanding from civil society in the CDM is also needed to scrutinise projects throughout their lifetime.

In this first edition we’ll take a look at the CDM reform efforts underway and how you can get involved in the discussion. What changes do we need to create mitigation tools that bring net benefits for people and climate? In this edition you’ll hear about the problems of Waste in the CDM, two contentious hydro-dams in the Amazon Basin, the life and death struggle of one indigenous tribe in Panama. You’ll read why the EU’s position matters for the future of the CDM and why carbon markets are on the brink of collapse.

Together with our growing Network we will keep exposing weak governance rules and practices, and support actions and campaigns against problematic CDM projects at national and international level.

If you would like to contribute to the next edition of Watch This! or have any comments please get in touch with [email protected]

Table of Contents

1. Can the CDM Policy Dialogue Panel save the CDM?
2. Stronger Rules for Local Consultations on the Horizon
3. Why the EU’s Position on Carbon Markets Matters
4. The CDM Executive Board – News from the CDM Control Center
5. The Dismal Future (of Carbon Markets)
6. Selling out the Amazon: Brazil Seeks Carbon Credits for Controversial Dams
7. Landfills and Incinerators in the CDM: Not Sustainable, Not Additional
8. The CDM Project Barro Blanco – an Obstacle to Peace
9. Watch This! Noticeboard: Hindi Toolkit, Discussion Forum, Documentaries: ‘The Carbon Rush’, ‘Resistencia!’