In the report, the Board outlines, among other things, measures undertaken by the CDM Executive Board and its support structure to enhance the efficiency of many processes under the CDM, as well as measures taken by the Board to remove barriers to participation in underrepresented countries.
The report concludes with a call for parties to provide a strong signal regarding the future of the CDM.
5 January 2012: The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board has published its 2011 annual report, which presents a summary of the CDM’s challenges and successes in 2011.
The report notes that the CDM continued to grow in 2011, with over 3500 registered projects currently, in 72 countries, and over 3600 projects in various stages of the registration process. On the geographic distribution of projects, the report states that this is expected to continue to change as more projects under development reach the registration phase, noting that 72 projects were registered in Africa by the end of the reporting period, compared with 46 one year earlier. The report also highlights the CDM’s contributions to sustainable development, reporting that, for instance, up to 44% of projects registered and under development are estimated to involve technology transfer, although rates for specific project types range from 13% to 100%.
The annual report also outlines measures undertaken by the CDM Executive Board and its support structure to enhance the efficiency of many processes under the CDM, such as guidelines for standardized emissions baselines and simplification of the CDM requirements. The report further highlights measures taken by the Board to: remove barriers to participation in underrepresented countries, including through the development of five methodologies specifically suited to projects in underrepresented regions and small communities; enhance awareness and understanding of the CDM, for instance through the CDM Changing Lives Photo and Video Contests; engage with stakeholders, including through the organization of 25 workshops, roundtable discussions, forums and training sessions in about ten countries; and enhance the transparency of the CDM, through translating key documents and summaries of meetings into the UN languages.
The report concludes that the CDM is an effective tool for incentivizing low-carbon development. It further underlines that parties need to provide a strong signal regarding the future of the CDM. It stresses that the CDM is vulnerable to an exodus of the CDM participants, consultants, brokers and other service providers, that have thus far been fully committed to the Mechanism, and that the lack of clarity regarding the future use of the mechanism also creates considerable difficulties for the Board in planning and continuing its work. [Publication: CDM Executive Board Annual Report 2011]