4 April 2014: The Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has agreed on steps to address double counting risks where registered CDM project activities or Programmes of Activities (PoAs) are also authorized by other emission reduction programmes.

The Executive Board considered this issue during its 78th meeting, held from 31 March to 4 April 2014, in Bonn, Germany. It agreed to encourage Designated National Authorities (DNAs) to make arrangements for CDM project or PoA participants in their jurisdictions to declare situations where a registered CDM project activity or PoA participates in and/or seeks issuance under another programme, including national, subnational and private programmes. The Board also agreed to promote the voluntary cancellation of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) in this context.

During its meeting, the Board also started discussing ways to increase the demand for CERs and the use of the CDM, by facilitating CER use for compliance and voluntary purposes. It requested the Secretariat to propose concrete initiatives in this regard for the Board to consider at its next meeting.

The Board further considered issues relating to registration of new project activities, the CDM PoA, issuance of CERs, new CDM standards, tools and procedures, and relations with forums and other stakeholders. The Board also noted that 250 PoAs have been registered by 4 April 2014, and that under these, 1,646 component project activities (CPAs) have been included and 140,610 CERs have been issued. The Board also noted that 7,476 CDM project activities have been registered as of 4 April 2014, with over 1.4 billion CERs issued. [Report of 78th Meeting of the CDM Executive Board] [UNFCCC Press Release]