8 December 2009: The World Bank has released a publication titled “10 Years of Experience in Carbon Finance – Insights from working with carbon markets for development & global greenhouse gas mitigation,” which provides an overview of the Bank’s experience of working with the Kyoto Protocol’s flexibility mechanisms, namely the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI).
In the publication, the World Bank suggests that scaling up the CDM, including through developing programmes of activities, will require a close examination of its overall governance with a view to, inter alia, enable the processing of a larger volume of projects, enhance consistency and predictability, facilitate better communications with practitioners and reduce CDM transaction costs.

The report further identifies key necessary changes, including: providing a long-term signal; streamlining the project cycle; broadening methodologies and making them more practical and accessible; and increasing the use of standardization and benchmarks to assess additionality while maintaining environmental integrity. The World Bank notes that these improvements can help pave the way for scaled-up emission reductions, contribute to sustainable development and broaden the reach of carbon finance to new areas and countries. [The Publication][World Bank Press Release]