15 November 2012: The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has reached a new milestone with the registration of its 5,000th project. In total, the CDM has registered projects in 81 developing countries worldwide, including solar power projects that replace fossil fuels, and projects that substitute inefficient wood stoves and industrial projects that destroy greenhouse gases (GHG).

The 5,000th project is the grid-connected Los Cocos Wind Farm Project, which is registered in Perdernales province in the Dominican Republic. The project activity involves the installation and operation of 14 wind turbines expected to generate 74,200 MWh of electricity annually, displacing 54,183 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from electricity previously generated at fossil fuel fired power plants.

Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, said this project is “the latest in a long line of impressive achievements made by the CDM.” She noted that the CDM has attracted over US$ 215 billion in investment in mitigation in less than ten years. Duan Maosheng, CDM Board Chair, called for participants at the upcoming UNFCCC meetings in Qatar to recognize “how far the CDM has come in terms of quality assurance and efficiency” and to further recognize the mechanism’s continuing role in the international response to climate change. [CDM Press Release]