Highlights -- 80th meeting of the CDM Executive Board



CDM Board agrees improvements to stakeholder consultation

Bonn, 18 July 2014 – The Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has agreed on rules to better ensure local stakeholders have a say in CDM emission-reduction projects.

At its 80th meeting, the Board agreed that stakeholders will have a means to lodge complaints about a project, even after the local stakeholder consultation has been held, that the third-party validators that vet CDM projects must re-examine stakeholders’ comments in the light of any subsequent changes in project design, and that local stakeholder consultation must take place before the real start of the project.

“Beyond reducing greenhouse gas emissions, CDM projects must contribute to people’s well-being,” said CDM Executive Board Chair Hugh Sealy. “With these rule changes, the Board is ensuring that people affected by a CDM project can give timely, meaningful input to that project.”

The changes will be elaborated and put before the Board for formal adoption at its next meeting as part of a broad package of enhancement to the rules for how CDM projects are designed, validated and their emission reductions verified.

Also at its 80th meeting, the Board agreed on rules to allow participants in multi-project programmes, so-called programmes of activities, to upgrade their projects to a less-emitting technology. For example, a programme designed to introduce CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) can now change the project to introduce LEDs (light-emitting diode lamps).

Among other issues covered at the meeting, the Board reiterated its intention to allow deregistration of CDM project activities, agreeing on the main elements of a procedure involving simple notification to the UNFCCC secretariat, while requesting the secretariat to come up with rules and procedures to cover cases when a deregistered project requests re-registration.

The matter, at the heart of which is the need to avoid double counting of emission reductions when a project wishes to take part in a system outside the CDM, such as China’s domestic emissions trading schemes, will be considered again at the Board’s next meeting, in September.

The Board also signaled its intention to look into the number, frequency and timing of the assessments it requires of its accredited CDM validators and verifiers, taking into account the need for a robust accreditation system as well as cost in light of current market conditions.

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For a full report of the meeting see <http://cdm.unfccc.int/EB/index.html>.
For more information please visit <http://cdm.unfccc.int/>

For further information please contact David Abbass <dabbass(at)unfccc.int>, Public Information Officer, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat, Bonn, Germany.

About the Kyoto Protocol’s clean development mechanism
The CDM allows emission-reduction projects in developing countries to earn certified emission reduction (CER) credits, each equivalent to one tonne of CO2. CERs can be traded and sold, and used by industrialized countries to meet a part of their targets under the Protocol. The CDM assists countries in achieving sustainable development and emission reductions, while giving industrialized countries some flexibility in how they meet their emission targets.