2 April 2014: The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the UNFCCC has published a voluntary online tool for highlighting the sustainable development benefits of the CDM in a “structured, consistent, comparable and robust manner.” The aim is to enhance the transparency of CDM projects’ sustainable development benefits.Currently, under the CDM rules, it is the responsibility of a CDM host country to confirm that a project will assist it in achieving its sustainable development goals. The country does this by issuing a letter of approval confirming the project’s contribution to its sustainable development. Using the CDM Sustainable Development Tool (SD Tool), CDM project developers can now elaborate, on a voluntary basis, the sustainable development benefits of their projects and programmes of activities by responding to a checklist of predefined indicators that describe impacts on the environment, society and economy of CDM host countries. Underlining the importance of the tool, CDM Executive Board Chair, Hugh Sealy, pointed out that it will help “highlight the mechanism’s contribution to sustainable development, while maintaining the host countries’ prerogative to define their criteria for sustainable development.” [CDM Press Release] [CDM Tools Webpage] [Request Form for CDM Sustainable Development Tool]