Highlights - 89th meeting of the CDM Executive Board

Lessons from Clean Development Mechanism Critical to Implementation of Paris Agreement Bonn, Germany, 13 May 2016 – Experience gained with the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) will be critical to the success of the new universal climate change agreement adopted with much excitement in Paris last year, said the United Nations’ top climate change official, Christiana Figueres. If faced with servicing the Paris Climate Change Agreement and the ambition pledged by countries without the experience gained from carbon markets “we wouldn’t be able to do it, we simply wouldn’t be able to do it,” Ms. Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told the Board that oversees the CDM. In December 2015, Parties under the UNFCCC adopted the Paris Agreement, pledging to take on increasingly ambitious emission reduction targets aimed at keeping global temperature rise to at most 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The agreement also includes tools to help countries achieve their ambitions, including markets and mechanisms. “It is precisely the time and all the experiences . . . that has put us in a very privileged situation of being able to live up to the expectations of the Paris Agreement, because we have more than a decade of experience with the CDM,” said Ms. Figueres, a guest at the Executive Board’s 89th meeting. Under the CDM, projects in developing countries earn a saleable credit for each tonne of greenhouse gas they reduce or avoid. The incentive has led to the registration of some 8,000 projects and programmes in more 105 countries and the issuance of more than 1.6 billion certified emission reductions (CERs). Demand for CERs has declined, and with it the incentive to set up projects. Now Parties’ attention has turned to markets and mechanisms under the Paris Agreement, described in its Article 6, and they are looking at what can be learned or borrowed from the CDM. “I’m really excited about the next chapter of what you will be supporting,” said Ms. Figueres, pointing to the CDM’s usefulness for monitoring, reporting and verifying emission reductions; as a tool for results-based financing; and as a means to provide transparency and predictability to financial instruments funding climate action. The CDM Executive Board will host two events on the opening day of climate negotiations which open in Bonn on Monday, 16 May: a side event titled A decade of CDM: Experience and lessons learned towards Article 6, and a workshop titled Exploring financing and use of the CDM by international climate finance institutions. Also at the meeting, the Board approved a second methodology for projects in the aviation sector, aimed at reducing emissions from planes parked at airport arrival and departure gates. The Board also revised its other aviation methodology, for projects that reduce emissions from airplanes as they taxi into position. - - - - - For a full report of the meeting please visit <http://cdm.unfccc.int/EB/index.html> For more information visit http://cdm.unfccc.int/ Twitter and Facebook: UN_CarbonMechs The Paris Agreement calls for climate neutrality in the second half of the century. To go Climate Neutral Now! visit <http://climateneutralnow.org/SitePages/Home.aspx> For on-demand webcast of the remarks by Christiana Figueres visit <http://unfccc6.meta-fusion.com/cdm89/events/2016-05-09-09-30-cdm-eb-89/interaction-with-the-unfccc-executive-secretary-ms-christiana-figueres>