Human Rights: How lessons learnt from the CDM can inform the design of New Market Mechanisms On 15 November 2013, as part of the COP19 in Warsaw, Carbon Market Watch organised a side event jointly with Gujarat Forum on CDM, Centro de Incidencia Ambiental (CIAM), Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA), the Center for International…
This report is a short summary of the most relevant outcomes of the 70th CDM Executive Board meeting, held in Doha in November 2012 before COP18. This summary provides information about key decisions taken at the meeting and includes our comments.
Highlights of the CDM Executive Board 68th meeting The following report is a short summary of the most relevant outcomes of the last CDM Executive Board meeting, held in Bonn from 16-20 July 2012. This summary provides information about key decisions taken at the meeting and includes our comments. The 68th meeting was an important…
This is a summary of the most relevant outcomes of the last CDM Executive Board meeting. It was the first meeting in 2012. You find information about the discussions and decisions at the meeting, including our comments. Feel free to get in touch if you would like to get involved and/or have comments and feedback. We added links to relevant documents where possible! All documents and annexes of the 66th meeting can be downloaded from the UNFCCC site here and here.
In December 2011, the European Commission published the “Study on the integrity of the Clean Development Mechanism”[1]. Under European Commission contract, this study was carried out by AEA, the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) and CO2logic. The study consists of one final report presenting the findings of seven accompanying briefing papers. The objectives of this study were to develop an in-depth understanding on the current CDM system (its merits and shortcomings) and options for reform as well as potential alternative mechanisms and their impacts.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was designed to bring clean and sustainable development to poor countries while enabling rich countries to achieve their emissions reductions cost efficiently. Hydro power makes up 30% of all carbon offsets projects registered under the CDM. Despite delivering renewable energy, these projects have faced sharp criticism for their failure to reduce emissions and for negative social and environmental impacts.
Dear CDM Watch Network Members, This is a summary of the most relevant outcomes of the last CDM Executive Board meeting. It was a shorter meeting than usual (since it was an extra meeting that was held just 1 month after the 63th meeting). You find information about the discussions and decisions at the meeting,…
This paper examines several issues that arise in awarding emission reduction credits to coal projects in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). It identifies systematic weaknesses in the coal methodology’s (ACM0013) design and application. The authors estimate that shortcomings lead to significant over-crediting of Certified Emission Reductions and discuss why a revision of the methodology to more accurately estimate emissions reductions may not be possible because of data constraints and weak signal-to-noise ratio.
The CDM now allows new coal plants to earn tradeable emissions credits for claimed improvements in power plant efficiency. This Policy Brief explains why coal projects do not belong in the CDM. They would have been built in the absence of the CDM, i.e. the projects that have come forward to date are uniformly ‘non-additional’ and will therefore generate carbon credits that do not represent real emission reductions. They also conflict with the CDM’s sustainability objectives by inflicting toxic burdens on local populations and ecosystems while undermining climate mitigation goals by locking in billions of tons of CO2 emissions over decades to come instead of investing in renewable energies and a low carbon development path.
This paper evaluates projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) that abate N2O emissions from adipic acid production. The analysis shows that carbon markets enabled N2O emissions abatement levels that had not previously been achieved. However, it also indicates that the CDM appears to have caused significant carbon leakage during the economic downturn in 2008 and 2009. We estimate that about 20% of the CERs issued for CDM adipic acid plants for 2008 and 2009 – totaling to about 13.5 MtCO2e – do not represent real emission reductions.
Carbon pricing 
International transport 
Climate governance 
Fair climate action