Framtida utformning av CDM

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 as a way to combat greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. The Kyoto Protocol contains three flexible mechanisms that will help the parties achieve their emission targets cost effectively. One of the flexible mechanisms – the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) – is further investigated and evaluated in this essay. Through the CDM the developed countries perform and invest in greenhouse gas reducing projects in developing countries. The investing country will get credits for the achieved emission reductions while the host country will benefit from technology transfer and sustainable development. CDM is supervised by the CDM Executive Board. Rules and procedures of the CDM are developed by CDM Executive Board in parallel with the first project applications. Other tasks of the CDM Executive Board are to approve new methodologies related to baselines and monitoring plans, and to develop and maintain a registry over CDM projects and their issued emission reductions. Two multilateral funds that have come far in establishing CDM projects are the World Bank Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF) and the Dutch fund CERUPT. The technical and geographical distribution of the projects is uneven. Most of the projects in these funds concern renewable energy and very few concern energy efficiency, though the PCF strive for more energy efficiency projects. The majority of the projects are conducted in Latin America and, in the case of CERUPT, not a single project is conducted in Africa. Some difficulties have occurred in the implementation of CDM projects. Those concerned in this essay are additionality, transaction costs, sustainable development, technology transfer and small scale projects. When implementing a CDM project you have to show that the project is additional, that is that it would not have occurred in the absence of CDM. Transaction costs are the costs derived from applying, reporting, monitoring and registering of a project. The transaction costs take up a great part of the total project costs and have to be reduced. Sustainable development and technology transfer are the cornerstones of CDM but might be neglected compared to the target of receiving emission reductions. To make small scale projects more attractive as CDM projects, the CDM Executive Board has agreed on a simplified project procedure. Larger project are much easier and cost effective to conduct. Until now, December 2003, the CDM Executive Board has approved the baseline of six projects – three concern landfill gas, one biofuel, one fuel change from coal to natural gas and one decomposition of HFC23.