Kevin Baumert and Nancy Kete with Christiana Figueres International climate change negotiations are struggling over the basic design and features of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), established in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the Framework Convention on Climate Change. Parties and observers elaborate three possible implementation models, or architectures, for the CDM typically described as bilateral, multilateral, or unilateral. These approaches differ in fundamental ways and reflect different preferences for the way CDM investment should take place. Choosing one approach over another will invariably enable some countries to benefit more than others, and favor some project types over others. This Note examines the characteristics of the different designs advanced by governments and observers and explores how an "open architecture" CDM might operate. An open architecture would allow different designs to complement one another, enabling the CDM to deliver a broader set of climate and sustainable development benefits. This approach reconciles the apparently conflicting visions of the CDM and could help forge a consensus in the climate talks. September 2000 / 20 pages |
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