Carbon leakage is the situation in which, as a result of stringent climate policies, companies move their production abroad to countries with less ambitious climate measures, which can lead to a rise in global greenhouse gas emissions. In Europe, the EU Emission Trading System (EU ETS) covers the greenhouse gas emissions from the industry and …
In June, the UN Board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) approved the contentious hydroelectric project Santa Ritadespite serious concerns over human rights violations. On 15 August 2014, a repressive security operation against the Q’eqchies communities of Cobán, Chisec and Raxruha by more than 1500 national police officers led to the forceful eviction of some 160 families resulting in three deaths, 50 injured, and a negative mark on the mechanism’s future. Carbon Market Watch is now calling for a formal investigation of the repressive actions and for the CDM’s Board to implement a grievance mechanism for affected communities.
Bonn climate talks in June provided a small step forward in determining elements of a draft treaty, aimed at being delivered in Lima COP 20 by the end of the year and a new international climate agreement to be agreed in Paris in 2015. The pace of negotiations and reforms falls short of addressing the rate of global warming and identified shortcomings bringing discussions on many items, including reforms of carbon markets to a halt with eyes on the upcoming climate negotiations in Peru.
A new chance to address the shortcomings of the CDM to implement robust public participation rules was born last year at the climate change conference in Warsaw where Parties requested the UNFCCC secretariat to collect information on practices for local stakeholder consultation and providetechnical assistance for the development of guidelines upon the request of countries. In June, at a recent Africa Regional Workshop in Windhoek Namibia, Designated National Authorities (DNAs) discussed how improvements to the role of local stakeholder consultations could be made and how to sustainable development impacts of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects can be monitored. Carbon Market Watch participated at this two day capacity building workshop and highlighted that best practice guidance on how to implement existing rules is still needed.
At the recent round of climate negotiations in Bonn in June, countries showed little interest in fixing the flaws of Joint Implementation (JI), the UN’s second largest offsetting scheme. The proposed new rules do little to tackle the severe quality problems that have dogged the scheme and led to very few genuine emission reductions. With the continued unwillingness of Parties to reform the system we see little reason why the JI should continue after the UN’s Kyoto Protocol ends in 2020.
Carbon Market Watch has presented new ideas on how to tackle the sixty percent of EU greenhouse gas emissions covered under the so-called Effort Sharing Decision (ESD). Two new reports published in June look at how successful the legislation, which only entered the implementation phase last year, has been in tackling emissions from sectors such as agriculture, transport and buildings which are not covered by the EU’s carbon market.
In June, members of the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board unanimously approved the Santa Rita Hydroelectric dam project #9713 despite widespread concerns that the local stakeholder consultation was not conducted correctly resulting in alleged human rights violations.
More than 150 environmental and social justice organizations have urged the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to adopt an “exclusion list” as part of its policies to ensure that environmental, social, gender and financial safeguards and protection – are taken up as a practice by several international development and financial institutions. In the run-up to the last GCF Board meeting that took place in Songdo, Republic of Korea, on the 18-21 May, the call for a GCF exclusion list got wider and louder.
In February 2014, I went to India to collect research on Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in India and their sustainable development benefits. During my 3 month stay, I had the pleasure to work together with Indian organizations and activists and found that a well-organized network, strong collaborations and awareness raising are the most important indicators for successful civil society work.
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