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The Clean Development Mechanism: too flexible to produce sustainable development benefits?

Watson, Charlene and Fankhauser, Samuel ORCID: 0000-0003-2100-7888 (2009) The Clean Development Mechanism: too flexible to produce sustainable development benefits? Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy and Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (2). Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy and Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London, UK.

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Abstract

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol has a dual objective: to encourage low-cost emission reduction and to promote sustainable development in the host countries of CDM projects. The CDM has by and large delivered on the first objective but arguably not on the second. This paper assesses quantitatively the form and prevalence of co-benefits in CDM projects. Adopting a broad definition of sustainable development, the project design documents of 409 projects (10% of the October 2008 project pipeline) were searched for keyword indicators of contributions to economic growth, physical, social and natural capital. Economic growth co-benefits, in the form of employment, constitute the main project co-benefit, with 82% of projects claiming to contribute to employment. Under a stricter sustainable development definition, projects contribute principally to social capital, primarily training (67%), with physical and natural capital gains less prominent. End-of-pipe projects are found to have lower co-benefits than renewable energy or forestry projects in particular. Contrary to common belief, small-scale projects do not appear to provide higher co-benefits than large-scale projects.

Item Type: Monograph (Working Paper)
Official URL: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/Home.aspx
Additional Information: © 2009 The Author
Divisions: Grantham Research Institute
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
JEL classification: Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q0 - General > Q01 - Sustainable Development
Date Deposited: 26 Jul 2011 15:07
Last Modified: 13 Sep 2024 20:13
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/37605

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