Implementing the Climate Change Regime's Clean Development Mechanism

In: The journal of environment & development: a review of international policy, Band 10, Heft 2, S. 125-146

Abstract

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Framework Convention on Climate Change seeks to reduce the costs for industrialized states of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while supporting abatement efforts in developing countries. Implementing an effective CDM system (whether under the Kyoto Protocol or any agreement that replaces it) will require recognizing that projects may fail because of intentional nonperformance by participants, the withholding of necessary cooperation by nonparticipants, adverse external events, or any combination of these. Maximizing the benefits to the climate change regime will require establishing project criteria and monitoring procedures that distinguish project-related from participant-related risk. Rather than adopting an exclusively adversarial approach focused on identifying and punishing those causing project failure, effective implementation will benefit from facilitative measures to avert failures before they occur and will reward projects that succeed under adversity. The CDM system's ultimate success also will require progressively evaluating and refining the system as a whole, as well as individual projects.