2 December 2014, Lima, Peru

As the climate negotiations kicked off in Lima, Carbon Market Watch along with Center for International Development Law (CIEL) and Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA) organized a joint side event as a part of the COP20.

The event, entitled “How lessons learned from the CDM can inform the design of climate finance”, opened the floor to discussion on the current and future role of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in the context of sustainable development and the safeguards therein. The event was opened by Carbon Market Watch Director Eva Filzmoser, who welcomed the opportunity to discuss the role of mitigation mechanisms in providing sustainable development benefits and the drawbacks needed to be tackled in the future climate financing. The speakers then presented their experience and views on the CDM and indulged in debate on how to improve this long standing mechanism.

In the aftermath of registration of an infamous CDM project of Santa Rita in Guatemala, Maximo Ba Tiul – Representative of Peoples’ Council of Tezulutlan shared his experience with the project on the ground and the violations and struggles the local communities are faced with. The chair of the CDM Board Hugh Sealey underlined the progress made in the social safeguards system of the CDM and the steps still considered ahead. Andrea Rodriguez from AIDA identified the need for higher standards and mandatory measurement in the social safeguard system of the Green Climate Fund as crucial components to help prevent harm and facilitate stakeholder participation. David Estrin from International Bar Association Task Force on Climate Change Justice and Human Rights stressed that universal rules on safeguards are needed, as national and international legal regimes often fail to protect affected communities. This was backed by Niranjali Amerasinghe from CIEL, who argued for safeguards at the UNFCCC level and the CDM to introduce the necessary instruments to provide remedy to negatively affected communities.

Read full report here