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Abstract

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was set up under the Kyoto Protocol to enable cost efficient greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation by Annex I (developed) countries and promote sustainable development (SD) in non-Annex I (developing) countries. However, the market-based mechanism has been widely criticized for failing to deliver its SD goal. Its failure is often in reference to the cheap large-scale mitigation projects that the market support, namely industrial gases destruction projects that deliver limited co-benefits beyond GHG abatement. In addition, CDM projects are mostly hosted in emerging economies that are already attracting large foreign direct investment, whilst the African region where carbon finance is most needed has largely been sidelined. The voluntary carbon market (VCM) on the other hand has been promoted for its contribution to poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation, thanks to its unregulated nature that allows for flexibility and innovation. However, such claim is mostly based on anecdotal evidence such as the market�s demand for offsets generated from charamastic projects such as clean cook stove dissemination and forest conservation projects. In this presentation, I will discuss the factors that contribute to the failure of the compliance market in delivering SD, which in turn are the advantages offered by the VCM. Then I will present the project portfolio developed within the VCM, mainly under the Voluntary Carbon Standard and Gold Standard, and compare to the CDM project portfolio to examine if the two markets are different in term of the projects they support and therefore their contribution to local SD.

Biography

Email: e.tan-loh12@imperial.ac.uk