After the CDM Policy Dialogue was launched at COP-17 in Durban the members of the high-level panel held its first meeting this February. The first meeting provided clarity that the panel will be developing recommendations about the CDM’s internal workings, the future direction and its impact to mitigation and sustainable development. Expectations are high…

At its launch event in December 2011, the panel was given the mandate to conduct a wider-ranging review of the CDM with a view to retooling it to become the key instrument for financing low-carbon development in developing countries after 2012. At its first meeting this February in Bonn, Germany, the Panel agreed that it would consider the evolving policy context, relevant lessons learned, effectiveness, efficiency, integrity, as well as mitigation and sustainable development impact of the mechanism. The panel also stressed that its review will be independent, inclusive and transparent, and include stakeholder input.

Though not yet available at the time of writing, a research programme and processes for stakeholder consultation were agreed upon and three areas of research were agreed: 1) focus on the mechanism’ s internal workings 2) future direction and 3) impact to mitigation and sustainable development.

The panel will elected Mohammed Valli Moosa, WWF Chairman from South Africa and Joan MacNaughton, President of Alstom, United Kingdom as its chair and vice chair respectively.

CDM Watch welcomes the identified priority areas, in particular the focus on the CDM’s impact on mitigation and sustainable development.  We also stress that within this context, Panel members should reassess which CDM project types are suitable to contribute to a low carbon economy and how to provide incentives for developing countries to increase their own emission reductions. With new market mechanisms on the horizon, Panel members should also assess how the environmental integrity of co-existing market mechanisms can be ensured. With more than 5,000 CDM projects in the pipeline that will be operational for many years to come, CDM Watch also urges Panel members to reassess and improve stakeholder involvement in the CDM, including during the operational phase of CDM projects.

With the decision to focus the panel’s work on developing recommendations about the future of the CDM, CDM Watch believes that these recommendations should be addressing all relevant CDM decision makers, including COP/MOP, the CDM EB as well as national governments for issues that may not be sufficiently addressed at the UNFCCC level. We, together with our network members expect the Panel to conduct its work in consultation with all affected stakeholders, including local communities.

Together with 57 other submissions[1], CDM Watch provided views to be considered by the Panel throughout this year, addressing in particular the following issues:

• Additionality
• Standardisation
• E+/E- ruling
• Eligibility of project types
• Approach to HFC-23 abatement
• Human rights
• Co-benefits and sustainable development
• Public participation in the CDM process
• Grievance mechanism
• Co-existence of market mechanisms.

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