5 Dec 2011: Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has launched a high-level policy dialogue on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The CDM policy dialogue aims to review past CDM experience and produce recommendations on how to best position and improve the CDM to respond to future challenges.

The dialogue, which was launched on 3 December 2011 during the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, will engage civil society, policymakers and market participants, aiming to gain a full and unbiased picture of the operations, experience, benefits and shortcomings of the CDM. An independent, 12-person panel has been assigned to ensure this engagement.

The CDM Executive Board has previously launched a call for public inputs on issues to be addressed in the dialogue, including external forces affecting the CDM, future challenges it can be expected to face, and opportunities and possible directions for its future use and development. The inputs, and a summary of them, will be shared with the panel that will conduct the dialogue and will be considered by the Board at its 66th meeting, to be held in early 2012. The outcome of the policy dialogue will be presented in a report to be made public and submitted to the Board. [CDM Announcement]