18 February 2011: The report of the 59th Meeting of the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which was held from 14-18 February 2011, in Bonn, Germany, is now available on the CDM website.

During the meeting, the Board considered issues relating to: accreditation of operational entities; methodologies for baselines and monitoring plans; small-scale CDM project activities; CDM programme of activities; registration of CDM project activities; issuance of certified emission reduction (CERs) and the CDM registry; the CDM management plan and resources for the work on the CDM; and relations with designated operational and applicant entities and other stakeholders.

Regarding the accreditation of operational entities, the Board considered the recommendations of the CDM Accreditation Panel and agreed to accredit and provisionally designate for three years the following entities for specific validation and verification/certification functions: China Classification Society Certification Company; Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education; and Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency. It also agreed to extend the scope of accreditation of Japan Consulting Institute.

With regard to small-scale project activities, the Board approved two new small-scale methodologies: switch from fossil fuel to biomass in existing manufacturing facilities for non-energy applications, which covers switching from a carbon intensive source (or a mix of energy sources) to renewable biomass or mix of renewable biomass and fossil fuel in existing manufacturing processes; and biogas/biomass for thermal applications for the households/small users, which includes simplified approaches for monitoring of thermal energy generated using biogas or processed biomass in small-scale end-use applications. It also agreed to revise six approved small-scale methodologies.

The Board further considered issues of general guidance relating to the registration of project activities. It agreed on revised “Procedure for requests for registration of proposed CDM project activities,” in accordance with the request by the sixth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP 6), to allow the effective date of registration to be the date on which a complete request for registration has been submitted, and agreed that, on an exceptional basis, the applicable date for these cases is 22 December 2010. In addition, it welcomed the Secretariat’s update on experience with implementation of the procedures for requests for registration and issuance and procedures for review, and further requested the Secretariat to undertake an analysis of the experience with these procedures.

Regarding the CDM management plan and resources for the work on the CDM, the Board adopted a comprehensive two-year business plan to scale up and improve the CDM, and also approved the Secretariat’s detailed 2011 CDM management plan.

The report of the meeting, together with all the annexes produced, including the business and management plans, are available on the CDM website. [Meeting Website]