CDM to reduce emissions by 1 billion tonnes

London, 8 June: Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects are set to generate the equivalent of 1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emission reductions by 2012, says the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat. This figure is equivalent to the combined emissions of the UK and Spain.
The number of projects in the pipeline has shot up over the last year, from 140 either registered or in the process of registering, to 800.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, the CDM allows developing countries to set up projects that cut emissions and earn carbon credits which can be bought by countries seeking to meet their Kyoto targets or sold through emissions trading schemes.
Some commentators have said that it could be difficult for CDM projects to find financing in future, because of the uncertainty over whether there will be a market for credits they generate after 2012 when the Kyoto Protocol ends.
But Kai-Uwe Schmidt, manager of the CDM section at the UNFCCC, told EF Publications Online that he has not seen a slackening off in the number of projects. "We don't see any slowing down. [There are] 80-60 projects a month which are going in the pipeline – a slight increase since the beginning of the year."
Most projects are located in China and India, which has prompted concern over whether the poorest developing countries are able to benefit from the CDM. Although there has been a five-fold increase in the number of projects under development in Africa over the last year, from five projects to 27, the UNFCCC is still concerned that not all developing countries are benefiting.
"Whilst the mechanism is seeing very strong growth, the growth is still too unevenly distributed amongst regions", said Janos Pasztor, acting coordinator for project-based mechanisms at the UNFCCC.
The UNFCCC is planning to release statistics later in the year on the failure-rate of projects aspiring to register to produce carbon credits, and more detailed figures on the number of projects under development outside of the CDM clusters in China and India.
See UNFCC