Voluntary tool aims to appraise the sustainable development impact of the Kyoto Protocol's CDM

Voluntary tool aims to appraise the sustainable development impact of the Kyoto Protokol's clean development mechanism (CDM)

(Bonn, 2 April 2014) – An online tool that aims to assess the sustainable development benefits of the CDM in a structured, consistent, comparable and robust manner is now fully operational.

The tool helps CDM project developers highlight, on a voluntary basis, the sustainable development benefits of their projects by responding to a check list of predefined indicators that describe impacts on the environment, society and economy of host countries.

“The voluntary tool will help highlight the mechanism’s contribution to sustainable development, while maintaining the host countries’ prerogative to define their criteria for sustainable development,” said the Chair of the CDM Executive Board, Hugh Sealy.

Contribution to sustainable development is one of the two objectives of the CDM. When adopting the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change established the mechanism to assist (1) developing countries to achieve sustainable development and contribute to the ultimate objective of the Convention and (2) developed countries to meet a part of their emission reduction targets.

CDM projects create carbon credits that can be sold to developed countries to help them meet their emission reduction targets. They also provide complementary benefits to developing countries, such as new investment, transfer of climate-friendly technologies, improvement of livelihoods, job creation and increased economic activity.

Under the rules of the CDM, it is the responsibility of a host country to attest whether a project assists the country to achieve its sustainable development goals. The country does this by issuing a letter of approval.

With the sustainable development tool, CDM project participants now have a way to elaborate on the sustainable development benefits of their projects and programmes of activities in a comparable and structured way.

It is hoped that enhancing the transparency of the sustainable development benefits of the mechanism will assist project participants to effectively promote the sustainable development benefits of their projects, and assist buyers of CERs to easily identify projects with high sustainable development benefits.

For further information please contact:
Irini Roumboglou, Communications Officer, UNFCCC at:
CDM-Press(at)unfccc.int, +49 (0) 228-815-1670

About the CDM
The clean development mechanism (CDM) allows emission-reduction projects in developing countries to earn certified emission reductions (CERs), each equivalent to one tonne of CO2. CERs can be traded and sold, and used by industrialized countries to meet a part of their emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol. With 7,472 registered projects and 248 registered programmes of activities in 105 developing countries, the CDM has proven to be a powerful mechanism to deliver finance for emission-reduction projects and contribute to sustainable development.

About the UNFCCC
With 195 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 192 of the UNFCCC Parties. For the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments. In Doha in 2012, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol adopted an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, which establishes the second commitment period under the Protocol. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.

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