CDM Programmes of Activities

Background | Registered | Requesting registration | Validation | Rejected | Review requested | Withdrawn | CPAs included | CPAs renewed | Withdrawn monitoring reports | PoA renewal CPA prior consideration

Under a programme of activities (PoA) it is possible to register the coordinated implementation of a policy, measure or goal that leads to emission reduction. Once a PoA is registered, an unlimited number of component project activities (CPAs) can be added without undergoing the complete CDM project cycle.

Compared to regular CDM project activities, this programmatic approach has many benefits, particularly for less developed countries or regions.

The main benefits of PoA are:

  • Transaction costs, investment risks and uncertainties for individual CPA participants are reduced
  • PoAs are managed on a regional level which speeds up the approval process
  • Access to the CDM is extended to smaller projects which would not be viable as stand-alone projects
  • Direct engagement of individual project developers in the CDM process is not required
  • Emission reductions can be continuously scaled up after PoA registration, since an unlimited number of CPAs can be added at a later stage
  • Many technologies with high co-benefits, e.g. on the household level, are supported by PoA
  • Specific regional policy goals can be effectively supported by accessing carbon finance through PoA
  • Monitoring and verification can be undertaken on a collective basis by utilizing a sampling approach
  • No registration fee is due for each CPA included after registration. Registration fees are based on the expected average emission reductions of the "actual case" CPAs submitted at the PoA registration.

When adopting the modalities and procedures for the CDM at its very first session in 2005, the CMP decided that "a local/regional/national policy or standard cannot be considered as a clean development mechanism project activity, but that project activities under a programme of activities (PoA) can be registered as a single clean development mechanism project activity, provided that approved baseline and monitoring methodologies are used that, inter alia, define the appropriate boundary, avoid double counting and account for leakage, ensuring that the net anthropogenic removals by sinks and emission reductions are real, measurable and verifiable, and additional to any that would occur in the absence of the project activity ".

Since 2007 when the initial PoA-related procedures and project design documents (PDDs) were introduced at the 32nd and 33rd meeting of the CDM Executive Board, the PoA requirements have been significantly improved and are still being calibrated in order to meet the specific needs of PoA participants.

In order to prepare a PoA for validation and registration, the applicable PoA-DD and CPA-DDs are to be submitted to a DOE according to the requirements outlined in the

  • -CDM Project Standard
  • -CDM Project Cycle Procedure
  • -Standard for demonstration of additionality, development of eligibility criteria and application of multiple methodologies for programme of activities
  • -Standard for sampling and surveys for CDM project activities and programme of activities

    Further information on the registration fee is available in Appendix 1 of the CDM Project Cycle Procedure and in the guidance on the payment of a registration fee for a programme of activities (PoA)

    All relevant information on specific PoAs is published on this page, according to the status in the Project Cycle. In order to access this information, please use the navigation menu on top of the page.