Current CDM design corrupt and 'unclean', says Indian NGO.
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The threat of climate change is real and urgent. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was supposed to be a win-win deal for the North and the South, and an effective way to combat this threat. Under it, the industrialised North got flexibility in achieving its emission reduction targets, in exchange for paying developing countries to shift to cleaner energy sources. Murky deals The report done by the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment says the losers in this deal are the developing countries. They take on the risk of implementing projects; pay between US $30,000-100,000 for a lengthy certification process to get projects cleared by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). They enter ERPA (Emission Reduction Purchase Agreements) that puts the penalty of non-compliance on the South. Yet, the price that developing countries get for credits is a meagre US $5-10 per tonne of carbon dioxide, while carbon credits get traded in Europe for US $27. All this is achieved by keeping the negotiations on price non-transparent and building a market that assists buyers and not sellers of the climate credits. This perversion of CDM’s stated purpose works because rich countries have created a mechanism so that they can get the cheapest deals – buying emission reductions from the developing countries by directly negotiating with private companies, through the involvement of privately hired auditors to certify the projects. International auditors indicted The process designed by the UN agency is one in which the project proponent (industry) pay the consultant (PWC or ENY) to prepare a project design document and then pays the validator (another auditor, designated by the UN agency) to audit the report. The audit report is then cleared by the international CDM board based in Bonn. Not only does this entire procedure lead to higher transaction costs, but its very design makes it open to corruption and fraud, as the study shows. "CDM has been designed deliberately to make it a bilateral business deal, a private-private partnership, which will give the rich countries a cheap deal. These procedures are leading to corruption and must be reformed," says Sunita Narain, director, CSE. Meeting sustainable development needs CSE is calling for reform of CDM by the UN agency so that is can be used as an effective tool to combat climate change. Currently, the procedures are convoluted, the discussions on price are non-transparent, the methodology to assess what project qualifies makes for bad decisions. In all these arrangements – of private and private to get cheap and easy deals – the role of governments is minimised. This obsession with lack of regulation is leading to a corrupt and highly ineffective system, says CSE. Narain, therefore, calls for reform of the mechanism. "CDM cannot become an industry mechanism, made for industry, by industry," she says. "To permit this to happen will subvert the objectives of CDM." The international community must be forced to bring in accountability and transparency in the governance of CDM and developing country governments like India must use CDM for their benefits: to reduce the threat of climate change in the interests of all. The reform proposal
Combating climate change is about building cooperative arrangements between the countries of the North and the South. The complicated, cheap and now corrupt development mechanism must be changed so that it can become the clean development mechanism, says the Centre. Only then can the world make the transition to cleaner energy futures. |
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