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EB109

CDM Executive Board successfully completes its 109th meeting.

As the restrictions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic continues to hinder travel and face-to-face meetings, the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) carried out its first meeting of the year - and the 109th meeting of the Board - in a by-now well-tested online mode.

Due to the time difference between the home locations of its 20 members, stretching from Peru in the west to Japan in the east, the meeting was organized in 3-hour segments over a total of six days across two weeks, with additional side meetings in small working groups in between.

The meeting was ably chaired by the newly elected Chair, Mr. Olivier Kassi of Belgium and Vice-Chair, Mr. Omar Alcock of Jamaica. The agenda covered multiple topics ranging from the consideration of requests for registration of project activities, clarification of temporary measures to enable the operation of CDM until CMP 16, guidance on technical options to support voluntary cancellations of Certified Emission Reductions, and reporting of the Board’s 2020 activities to the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (CMP), to approving changes to standards for CDM project activities and programme of activities, taking note of updates on policy development, work by the relevant panels and working groups, interactions with the DOE/Accredited Independent Entity Coordination Forum, and providing guidance on the on the ICAP Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) of the International Civil Aviation organization (ICAO).

In addition, new appointments for the CDM Panels and Working Groups were decided, as follows:

  • Mr. Piotr Dombrowicki and Mr. Kamal Djemouai, to serve as the chair and vice-chair, respectively, of the CDM Accreditation Panel;
  • Mr. El Hadji Mbaye Diagne and Ms. Natalie Kushko, to serve as the chair and vice-chair, respectively, of the CDM Methodologies Panel;
  • Ms. Diana Harutyunyan and Ms. Eduardo Calvo, to serve as the chair and vice-chair, respectively, of the CDM Afforestation and Reforestation Working Group;
  • Mr. Frank Wolke and Mr. Muhammad Tariq, to serve as the chair and vice-chair, respectively, of the Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Working Group.

The CDM rewards projects in developing countries for each tonne of greenhouse gas (GHG) they reduce or avoid by delivering carbon credits that are tradeable on the global carbon market. The incentive has led to registration of more than 8,100 projects and programmes of activities in 111 countries, from renewable energy projects, to projects that spread the use of healthy, efficient cook-stoves, to large industrial gases projects. To date, more than 2 billion certified emission reduction (CER) credits have been issued, a token of the amount of GHG that were avoided or reduced thanks to the CDM.

The next meeting of the CDM Executive Board (EB 110) will be held in the last weeks of May.