5 December 2011: The UNFCCC Secretariat and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Risø Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development (URC) have published the latest Update of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Bazaar, containing the latest CDM Bazaar news and a summary of the latest developments regarding the CDM and the CDM Programme of Activity (PoA) rules.

The Update highlights that a new version of the CDM Bazaar will be presented in January 2012, which will be accompanied by the introduction of the new CDM Bazaar newsletter. The update also provides an overview of the CDM Bazaar and progress achieved, highlighting that the CDM Bazaar aims to contribute to a more efficient CDM and reduce transaction costs. It notes that the website has attracted attention from less represented areas, including African countries.

The Update further outlines some general information and recent developments on CDM rules, including: the development of two standards to facilitate the understanding of how to develop PoAs; adoption of new rules on demonstrating additionality for micro-scale projects; expansion of the positive list of project types that do not need to demonstrate additionality; and development of new procedures for developing standardized baselines. Finally, the Update highlights two CDM initiatives to be presented at the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the UNFCCC, as follows: a policy dialogue to review the past CDM experience and help ensure the readiness and position­ing of the CDM to meet the challenges of the post-2012 period; and the CDM loan scheme to cover some of the transaction costs of projects in countries that host fewer than ten registered projects. The CDM Bazaar was initiated under the Nairobi Framework to address the issue of unequal distribution of CDM projects. [Publication: CDM Bazaar Update]