Happy 1st Birthday CDM Watch Network! (Watch This! #2)

Scroll down for Spanish This time last year the CDM Watch Network was just launched.  Since then word has spread and the network has grown from a few activists and academics working with us on the CDM and carbon markets to nearly 500 member organisations and networks that work on various issues across 5 continents! …

The CDM policy dialogue – Lobby showdown or honest review? (Watch this! #2)

Scroll down for Spanish Countdown’s almost up: The high-level panel on the CDM Policy Dialogue has finalised its report at their last meeting from 24-26 July in Johannesburg. The report summing up reform recommendations will be released in September 2012. We have closely followed the process and are worried that the results of the final …

Highlights of 68th CDM Executive Board meeting (Watch This! #2)

Scroll down for Spanish The 68th meeting of the CDM Executive Board (EB) held in Bonn from 16 -20 July brought a victory against coal power projects in the CDM. It also advanced discussions on the sustainable development reporting (SD) tool that will be discussed and possibly approved  at the next Board meeting in September. …

Watch This! NGO Voices on the CDM #2

The heat is on as last projects from emerging economies rush to registration before the change of eligibility for the European market at the end of the year will take effect. Dirty coal will not make the race as the methodology remains suspended. This decision kicks almost all future carbon credits from coal power projects out of the EU ETS. Good timing! While this is amazing news, much work still needs to be done to create finance mechanisms with net benefits for climate and people. Maybe the development of sustainable development goals launched this year at Rio+20 will be able to break the deadlock and contribute to

Press Release: New study shows loopholes could nullify climate commitments

Brussels, Aug 2, 2012. Countries have less than six months left to close the gigantic loophole that threatens the viability of new climate regimes. The Kyoto Protocol surplus allowance issue needs to be resolved otherwise climate commitments until 2020 could be nullified, a new peer-reviewed study shows. The EU, who so far has remained silent …

Public Participation in the CDM

Scroll down for French and Spanish Although the stakeholder consultation process is a key requirement in the CDM process cycle, it has so far been treated as a mere formality. Often communities impacted by CDM projects are not informed about CDM projects or not given an accurate account of expected impacts. Moreover, civil society has now way …

Press Release: UN Body decision marks end for dirty carbon credits from coal power in the EU emissions trading scheme

Washington D.C., Brussels, 23 July 2012. The United Nations Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board has taken a significant step towards a major victory against propping up the dirty, carbon intensive coal industry. In a meeting last week, the CDM Executive Board requested yet another round of scrutiny of the set of rules that would allow coal power plants in India and China to receive carbon credits.

The CDM sustainable development tool: why ‘highlighting’ will not deliver (Newsletter #20)

The CDM Executive Board is currently developing a tool to highlight sustainable co-benefits of CDM projects and PoAs. An initially promising opportunity was unfortunately wasted when it was decided that this tool shall be voluntary, with no monitoring in place. Or in other words, useless.

Hot air: toxic for the Kyoto Protocol (Newsletter #20)

A gigantic 13 Gigatonne ‘hot air’ loophole is threatening to undermine the viability of the second commitment period of the Kyoto protocol. If Parties do not properly address the AAUs surplus this year this huge bubble of stale air may stifle the success for international climate negotiations for years to come.