Climate change is happening. Global average temperatures have already increased by 0.8ºC above preindustrial levels. Current trends imply a warming of 2.9-5.2ºC by the end of the century, which, even at the low end of the range, will cause great impacts on the planet and threaten many areas of human life, including health, food security, economic growth, societal change, and drinking water. 2015 is a key year for global efforts to combat climate change and keep warming under 2ºC, the warming limit agreed in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations.
On December 11, as part of the People’s Summit in Lima, Peru, Carbon Market Watch organized an event about Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs). At the occasion of this event, experts from Carbon Market Watch, the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), the Greens Movement of Georgia and Friends of the Earth Georgia discussed this new policy instrument and the role of civil society in its design and implementation.
With a number of Clean Development Projects (CDM) in the forefront of climate discussions for failing to deliver clean and sustainable development to poor countries, representatives of civil society gathered to discuss the many implications of coal power projects. The event named ‘The Sasan Coal Power CDM Project Lessons Learnt for Climate Finance’ was held in the People’s summit in Peru to illustrate the repercussions of dirty energy and what happens in the absence of social safeguard systems and disregard for sustainable development benefits within the CDM projects.
As the climate negotiations kicked off in Lima, Carbon Market Watch along with Center for International Development Law (CIEL) and Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA) organized a joint side event as a part of the COP20.
The future role of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in the 2015 climate treaty is likely to be very limited. CDM advocates have therefore started to look beyond traditional funds for offsets and are now eyeing at climate finance. However, the CDM in its current state does not provide environmental and social standards needed for climate action.
With a large baggage of stranded carbon credits with no buyers in sight, the CDM has started to flirt with the idea of accessing climate finance through the Green Climate Fund to pay for emission reductions delivered by CDM projects without using the offset credits. However, the criteria of the adopted GCF accreditation framework suggest that the CDM in its current form seems out of the climate finance game.
From 7-9 October 2014, Carbon Market Watch together with civil society organizations in India organized a workshop on sustainable development and future climate politics. Co-organizers included: Bank Information Centre, Beyond Copenhagen Collective, Christian Aid, Centre for Education and Documentation (CED), Centre for Environment, Social and Policy Research (CESPR), Center for Research and Advocacy – Manipur, …
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