Weak Performance of Climate Reviewers

Saturday, May 30, 2009
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged Global Warming

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Berlin - The evaluation of climate offset projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is inefficient and offten of poor quality, a new WWF rating of project evaluators which certify offset projects under the Kyoto Protocol’s mechanism reveals. The new report commissioned by WWF and produced by Öko-Institut, analyses whether the Designed Operational Entities (DOEs) validate, verify and certify climate projects in developing countries according to the expectations of the CDM Executive Board, the UN body that supervises and coordinates the CDM-process. The rating includes 900 projects of the DOEs.

In the rating none of the DOEs scored well. On a scale from A (best) to F (worst), TÜV-Nord and TÜV-Süd are leading the rating with a D, followed by SGS with an E rating. BV Cert and DNV get F scores and are at the bottom of the table.

The global conservation group calls for a reform of the CDM and an improved performance of the evaluators, in order to prevent investment in dubious offset projects and ensure real CO2 emission reductions.

“The project evaluators submit too many CDM project applications which are rejected, reviewed or requested for correction by the CDM Executive Board”, says Sanjeev Kumar, Emission Trading Expert at WWF.

“The failings of the DOEs to get projects registered by the CDM Executive Board and the overall issue of poor project quality that has blighted the CDM are clearly connected.”

“EU Member States must now reassess the environmental quality of any credits coming into the EU Emissions Trading Scheme”, added Kumar.

“Any subprime credits, such as credits coming from the suspended DNV, need to be excluded from the system.”

CDM projects allow industrialised countries to meet their emission reduction targets in a more cost-effective way, by investing in emission reduction efforts in the developing world, thus promoting sustainable energy projects in the host countries.

Previous WWF research has shown, however, that these projects can be of dubious quality and may even increase emissions instead of reducing them. The performance of the DOEs, as assessed in the new WWF analysis, is crucial to protect the CDM from counterproductive projects.

“If we really want to decrease the dangerous CO2 emissions globally, the industrialized countries need to stop investing in dubious offset projects”, says Kumar.

“We need binding and ambitious CO2 reductions in the developed world and high-quality CDM offset projects in developing countries. The next round of UN climate talks has to effectively address the flaws in the current CDM and the weak performance of DOEs.”

The rating of DOEs aims to inform the market how well they are fulfilling the requirements of the CDM Executive Board. The percentage of projects registered, rejected, reviewed or for which corrections are requested is used to assess their performance. All DOEs rank low and there is no champion, as the share of projects automatically registered is below 50 percent in each case.

http://www.panda.org/wwf_news/news/?uNewsID=165663