18 July 2014: At its 80th meeting, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board has agreed on rules to ensure that local stakeholders have a say in CDM emission-reduction projects.

The Executive Board has agreed that: stakeholders will have a means to lodge complaints about a project, even following local stakeholder consultation; third-party validators that vet CDM projects must re-examine stakeholders’ comments in light of any subsequent changes in project design; and local stakeholder consultation must take place before the actual start of the project.

Hugh Sealy, CDM Executive Board Chair, highlighted that, with these rule changes, the Executive Board is “ensuring that people affected by a CDM project can give timely, meaningful input to that project.” These changes will be expanded and put before the Executive Board for formal adoption at its next meeting.

The Executive Board has also, inter alia: agreed on rules to allow participants in multi-project programmes, or programmes of activities (PoA), to upgrade their projects to a less-emitting technology; reiterated its intention to allow de-registration of CDM project activities; and requested the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat to develop rules and procedures to cover cases when a de-registered project requests re-registration.

Additionally, the Executive Board has indicated that it intends to address the number, frequency and timing of the assessments it requires of its accredited CDM validators and verifiers, ensuring the integrity of the accreditation process and taking into account costs in light of current market conditions.

The 80th meeting of the CDM Executive Board took place from 14-18 July 2014, in Bonn, Germany. [UNFCCC CDM Press Release] [CDM Executive Board 80th Meeting Website]