Jointly with several Brazilian Organizations*, CDM Watch organized a workshop on “The Role of Civil Society in Climate Change Mitigation Projects” on 26 and 27 October in Brasilia, Brazil.

Drawing on the experience of Brazilian citizens on how good, bad or ugly projects can be implemented; participants identified problematic cases of climate change mitigation projects in Brazil, discussed and analyzed the experience of citizens impacted by these projects and created a critical civil society platform.

Participants demanded the exclusion of environmentally or socially harmful projects, violating human rights or any other international conventions from the CDM. Any CDM project which is in direct conflict with the informal sector should not qualify or be inclusive and take into consideration the needs of informal sector workers, such as waste pickers at the conception stage. Attempts to improve the CDM’s governance were welcomed in principle but seen as totally unsatisfactory at the moment. Most of all participants urged the need for strong comprehensive policies and regulations aimed at cutting emissions and mitigating climate change. They underlined that this must be done independently of the development of carbon market mechanisms. That these can only be a complementary measure since incentives to keep emitting cannot mitigate climate change. Carbon credits from CDM projects should therefore only qualify for a minor quota of domestic emission reduction goals.

The full workshop statement in Portuguese can be downloaded here: download pdf

The supporting documents in pdf file can be downloaded here:

• CDM Workshop Invitation: download pdf
• CDM Workshop Programme: download pdf
• CDM Workshop Statement: download pdf / Declaração Ofícina Brasilia

The presentations in pdf file can be downloaded here:

• Mundanças climáticas e o Brasil – Rubens Harry Born, Vitae Civilis
• Sociedade Civil e Governação no MDL – Eva Filzmoser, CDM-Watch
• A problematica dos grandes centrais hidroelectricas – Brent Millikan, International Rivers
• As emissoes GEE dos projetos hidro – Philip Fearnside, INPA
• Hidrelétrica de Jirau e o aquecimento global – Josep Iborra Plans, CTP Rondonia
• Reciclagem ontem, hoje e amanhã – Severino Lima, MNCR
• Incineração e mercados de carbono: falsas soluções – Eduardo Giesen, GAIA
• O mecanismo REDD no Brasil – Adriana Ramos, Instituto Socioambiental
• O Observatorio do REDD – Vitor Canealho, GTA
• A politica dos agrocombustiveis na UE e os projetos MDL – Nusa Urbancic, T&E

The background material in pdf file can be downloaded here:

• CDM Factsheet – portuguese
• Ficha technica – negociar e limitar
• Estudo de caso – Plantar
• Comentários sobre o projeto da Plantar – RIV

*Co-organisers of the workshop were:

• Federação de Orgãos para Assistência Social e Educacional (FASE) – www.fase.org.br
• Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternative (GAIA) – www.no-burn.org
• Movimiento Nacional dos Catadores de Materiais Reciclaveis (MNCR) – www.mncr.org.br
• Via Campesina – www.viacampesina.org
• Rede Social – www.social.org.br
• International Rivers – www.internationalrivers.org
• Articulacao Nacional de Agroecologia – www.agroecologia.org.br