The New Commodity

2008 has been an year of ups and downs for CDM. While about 600 new project activities were registered, it was also widely believed that CDM EB (Executive Board) has been dealing with the projects in a more stringent manner which meant that many project activities could not go through.

UNFCCC at the end of the last year released a summery of the year called “Clean Development Mechanism", 2008 in brief”. The report truly described emission reduction as a “new commodity”. This report further discusses the aspects of the CDM process in brief talking about how quality of projects is judged and maintained. Efficient and careful vetting takes place by third party validation and verification of the project activities.

Here are the various data and figures for the year 2008 presented in the report.

 

Clearly the major developing countries in Asia control the market. India and China together account for more than 50% of the registered project activities. The matter of concern is that CDM revenues are not reaching the more needy countries like the LDCs or the SIDS.

Energy Industries account for more than 50% of the registered project activities which gives us an indication that people are switching to cleaner fuels and cleaner sources of energy, which is a good sign.

Small scale and PoAs should be promoted more as they involve more of community actions and larger dispersion of clean technologies to common people.

Abbreviations:

• CDM: Clean Development Mechanism
• EB: Executive Board
• UNFCCC: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
• LDCs: Least Developed Countries
• SIDS: Small Island Developing States
• PoA: Programme of Activities

 

Sources:

UNFCCC: www.unfccc.int