Continuing Problems with the Clean Development Mechanism
By Michael Akman, michael.akman at gmail.com

Two articles recently published by The Guardian allege that problems with the implementation of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) have led to serious questions about the environmental benefits arising from the program.

As many as 20% of the credits created under the CDM may be faulty and, because those credits are used in place of emissions reductions in the developed world, may be resulting in a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, an expert adviser to the CDM Executive Board examined all 52 CDM projects registered in India as of May 2006 and found that as many as one third of them were not “additional” as required under the CDM.

Criticism has focused on the Designated Operational Entities (DOEs), companies that serve as independent, third party verifiers. Three of the seventeen accredited DOEs have performed poorly enough to prompt the CDM Executive Board to carry out spot checks, yet the Board has so far not named any of the three companies. Not adequately addressing these issues will cause the nearly two billion credits coming through the CDM pipeline to greatly undermine the Kyoto Protocol’s targets.

For more information see “Truth About Kyoto: Huge Profits, Little Carbon Saved” and “Abuse and Incompetence in Fight Against Global Warming” by Nick Davies in The Guardian, 2 June 2007 .