The current EU ETS rules have granted preferential treatment to industrial companies deemed at risk of “carbon leakage” in the form of awarding free pollution permits. The ongoing legislative process to revise the EU ETS rules for the post-2020 period provides an important opportunity to revisit the rules under which industrial sectors may be deemed at risk of carbon leakage.
Dear members of the European Parliament,
On behalf of the Chair of the CDM Executive Board, I would like to thank you for your communication of 20 May 2015, informing us of your serious concern about project 9713: Santa Rita Hydroelectric Plant. Your letter was made available to the CDM Executive Board (the Board).
I hereby inform you that project 9713” Santa Rita Hydroelectric Plant” was registered by the Board on 2 June 2014 after undergoing a review process at the request of Board members. The issues you raise in your letter were looked at during the course of this review and it was found that the proposed project activity had complied with the requirements of the CDM, including the local stakeholder consultation process. Further, the designated national authority (DNA) of Guatemala issued required letter of approval (dated 2 July 2012) confirming that the project will assist Guatemala in its efforts to achieve sustainable development. The DNA had also confirmed to the Board, in the course of the review of the project activity, that the local stakeholder consultation process was carried-out appropriately.
Dear Mr Schneider and Mr Buendia,
As a Member of the European Parliament committed to the respect of Human Rights, we are writing to you to express our serious concern about the Santa Rita Hydroelectric Plant in the Dolores River in Guatemala, which was registered under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in June 2014 (project number 9713).
In a meeting in March 2015 with a representative of the local indigenous communities we learnt that many of the communities that will be impacted by the project were never consulted in accordance with the CDM local stakeholder consultation requirements. As a result, the project has been, and still is, in the center of a violent conflict between the communities and the power company implementing this project.
This week, European policymakers have provisionally agreed on a fix for the EU’s carbon market that is suffering from an oversupply of pollution permits and yielding record-low prices. While this is a great step forward, a permanent solution to tackle the glut of pollution permits is needed as part of the upcoming legislative proposal to overhaul the EU’s carbon market for the period after 2020.
As the EU and Switzerland are about to conclude the technical negotiations to link the EU and Swiss carbon markets in the coming months, a new policy brief and report by Carbon Market Watch show that the EU must increase its climate target to avoid diluting domestic emission reduction obligations with foreign allowances from the Swiss carbon market.
6 May 2015, Brussels. European policymakers provisionally agreed to start implementing the reform of the EU’s Emissions Trading System on 1 January 2019 and put the pollution permits that were due to come back to the market by 2020 directly into the new Market Stability Reserve. Carbon Market Watch welcomes this first step to fix the EU’s carbon market but cautions that the upcoming revision of the EU ETS will need to permanently tackle the glut of pollution permits.
Des activistes venant d’Afrique, d’Asie et d’Amérique centrale ont rencontré les institutions financières et les décisionnaires impliqués dans le financement de projets de développement afin de partager leurs expériences avec les mécanismes existants d’atténuation des changements climatiques, tel le Mécanisme de développement propre (MDP), et de souligner les graves impacts de ces mécanismes de l’ONU sur les droits de l’homme fondamentaux. La responsabilité en matière de financement pour la lutte contre le changement climatique fut donc abordée sous une perspective européenne.
Activistas de África, Asia y Centroamérica se reunieron con las instituciones financiera y los responsables implicados en la financiación de proyectos de desarrollo con el fin de compartir sus experiencias en los mecanismos existentes de atenuación de los cambios climáticos, como el Mecanismo de desarrollo limpio (MDL), y destacar los graves impactos de estos mecanismos de la ONU sobre los derechos humanos fundamentales. La responsabilidad en la financiación para la lucha contra el cambio climático se debatió entonces desde una perspectiva europea.
Sharing experiences with existing climate mitigation mechanisms, such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and highlighting the severe impacts on basic human rights these UN mechanisms can have, activists from Africa, Asia and Central America met with financial institutions and policy makers involved in financing these projects. The accountability of climate finance was thereby discussed from a European perspective.
Last week in an event in the European Parliament, various stakeholders discussed experiences with existing climate mechanisms against the future climate finance policy landscape, where potentially huge amounts of climate finance will not only be channeled through the Green Climate Fund (GCF) but also through bilateral agreements and other instruments where it is still unclear what types of safeguards and compliance mechanisms will be applicable and how the respective public and private stakeholders involved will be accountable.
Carbon pricing 
International transport 
Climate governance 
Fair climate action