The paper, titled "Indexing CDM Distribution: Leveling the Playing Field," notes that the "established truth" is that Africa and the least developed countries (LDCs) have been lagging behind in CDM project hosting, but that if more relative figures are used, the distribution is actually "becoming remarkably equal."
May 2011: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP), under its Capacity Development for the Clean Development Mechanism (CD4CDM) project, has published a paper on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which focuses on the equitable distribution of CDM projects.
The paper, titled “Indexing CDM Distribution: Leveling the Playing Field,” notes that the “established truth” is that Africa and the least developed countries (LDCs) have been lagging behind in CDM project hosting, but that this conclusion is based simply on an analysis of numbers of projects per country. It suggests, however, that if more relative figures are used, such as size of economy, level of carbon emissions and CDM project development, the conclusion would have to be that Africa and the LDCs are no longer the “lost world” in CDM terms.
It concludes that the distribution is actually “becoming remarkably equal,” even in the LDCs, and that the LDCs are outperforming other countries in terms of some indicators, such as the share of national carbon emissions that are covered by the CDM. The paper further concludes that this performance can probably be attributed to a combination of factors including the Nairobi Framework, and increased economic growth, technology influx from other developing countries and incidence of extreme weather events. [Publication: Indexing CDM Distribution: Leveling the Playing Field]