Abstract
Developed countries are asked to commit themselves voluntarily to meeting targets of emissions reduction. At the same time, a free market is created to transact these reduction units, encouraging investment in developing countries and technology transfers.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), set up in the Kyoto Protocol (KP), is an original tool in the international arena, designed to deal with the world-wide problem of reducing Greenhouse Gasses (GHGs) which are harmful to the world’s climate system. The big proviso to such investment is that it must contribute to Sustainable Development (SD) in the country where the investment takes place.
It is argued that SD is an important requirement of the KP, helps to maintain environmental integrity and should be rigorously assessed prior to any investment in a CDM project. The benefits of this would be certainty in the application of the CDM, reduction of risk to investors, developers and owners and the provision of cost-free assistance to developing countries that could reduce the enormous divide between countries of the North and those of the South.
The SSN project3, an experiment in southern led CDM project development, has proposed a methodology for appraising the suitability of candidate CDM projects. This methodology involves the use of criteria for assessing eligibility in the first instance, as well as a set of quantifiable indicators for use as a check-list against which project developers can evaluate projects, not least in terms of its contribution to SD. This methodology includes an incremental approach to ensuring that projects are assessed rigorously, by proposing a list of indicators that must be satisfied before projects are likely to be given formal approval by the DNA. The SSN project proposes this methodology as one way to reduce the risks involved in the high costs of transacting CDM projects.
At the same time, the methodology promotes the preservation of environmental integrity/sustainability.
This paper presents this criteria and indicators appraisement tool, on the basis of actual experience of applying it in practice, and proposes that the institutional structures in countries of the south would also benefit from using the tool. It is proposed that this methodology would help to harness the considerable potential for countries of the South to attract additional investment in clean and sustainable development through the climate window.
|