Press Highlights -- 79th meeting of the CDM Executive Board

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CDM Board streamlines project approval process 

Bonn, 1 June 2014 – The Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has made a change to its project vetting process that should cut the time to registration and reduce the need for changes to project design documents.

For a CDM project to earn certified emissions reductions (CERs) it must first be validated, which until today has included vetting of the plans for how emission reductions will be monitored. The Board, at its 79th meeting, agreed that vetting of monitoring plans can now take place during or after validation and anytime up to the project’s first request for CER issuance. 

“This change smoothes the way to project registration, but retains the same level of stringency ensuring each tonne of emission reduction represents a true reduction,” said CDM Executive Board Chair Hugh Sealy. “This is an elegant but significant improvement that adds to the long list of enhancements we’ve made to the mechanism in the past number of years.”

 Aside from streamlining the validation and registration process, shifting the vetting of monitoring plans will give project participants some practical experience with their projects before they have to submit a detailed monitoring plan, experience they can use to create more accurate, workable plans. This is expected to reduce the number of requests for issuance that the Board has to review because a monitoring system deviates from an approved monitoring plan.

 Also at its 79th meeting, the Board simplified the procedures for how Programmes of Activities (PoAs) request issuance of CERs. Now PoA participants can request issuance in batches, bundling reductions made at several project sites, so-called component project activities. Under a PoA, an unlimited number of project activities over a wide area, even across national boundaries, can be placed under the same administrative umbrella, thus increasing efficiency and allowing even very small- scale activities to be practical under the CDM.

 At the meeting the Board approved the first CDM methodology for the dairy sector. By supplementing the feed of their dairy cows or buffalo, smallholder producers can benefit from increased productivity, and reduce methane emissions per unit of milk produced.

 The Board also broadened and further simplified its methodology for rural electrification using renewable energy. The methodology can now be used for projects that rehabilitate non-functional systems.

 The Board also decided to extend by six months, to 1 January 2015, the date by which designated operational entities must comply with the Board’s revised accreditation standard, adopted in 2013. This should help the companies that validate projects and verify emission reductions, especially the smaller companies, make a smoother transition to the revised standard.

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 more than 7,500 registered projects and more than 250 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 196 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.

See also: cdm.unfccc.int
Twitter: @UN_ClimateTalks, @UN_CarbonMechs
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UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres on Twitter: @CFigueres