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BONN, Germany, June 14, 2006 (Refocus Weekly)
A scheme to promote the use of renewable energy
in developing countries will help to displace the emission of more
than one billion tonnes of greenhouse gases by 2012.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was set up under the Kyoto
Protocol to allow industrialized nations to obtain credits against
their GHG emissions by investing in emission reduction projects. It
is one of the ‘flexible mechanisms’ in the treaty, and complements
climate-friendly policies that are enacted by each industrialized
country to meet their national goals.
The United Nations Climate Change Secretariat says CDM will produce
more than one billion tonnes of emission reductions by the end of
2012. The program has more than 800 renewable energy projects,
including windfarms in India to biomass power plants which burn
sugar cane waste in Brazil.
The first project under CDM was approved only late in 2004. One
billion tonnes is equivalent to the current annual emissions of
Spain and Britain combined.
“We have crossed an important threshold with these emission
reductions,” says Richard Kinley of UNFCCC. “It is now evident that
the Kyoto Protocol is making a significant contribution towards
sustainable development in developing countries.”
In Africa, there are 27 planned CDM activities of which five have
been registered, representing a five-fold growth over the past year.
Of the 800 projects in the pipeline, 210 are registered and another
58 are requesting registration. Last year, only 140 activities were
registered or being considered for registration.
“Whilst the mechanism is seeing very strong growth, the growth is
still too unevenly distributed amongst regions,” explains Janos
Pasztor of the ‘Project Based Mechanisms’ with the UNFCCC.
Governments are expected to address this issue in November with CDM
officials at the UN climate change conference in Nairobi.
GHG emissions from human activities around the world are 25 billion
tonnes a year, of which one quarter are released in the United
States. The Kyoto Protocol requires 35 industrial countries to
reduce their GHG emissions by 5.2% below 1990 levels by 2012.
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