International Workshop: CDM, offset policies and the global carbon market

The international carbon market remains a dynamic field. On behalf of the German Emissions Trading Authority adelphi brought together policy makers and experts to explore perspectives on offset development, CDM reform, and the potential bridges from the CDM towards new market based mechanisms.

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has long suffered from critique with regard to its bureaucracy, transaction costs, and the concentration of projects in a few, primarily emerging countries. In addition to the existing multilateral framework, a number of jurisdictions, among them California and Australia, are establishing their own offset systems. On behalf of the German Environment Agency, adelphi and the Wuppertal Institute studied these jurisdictions’ perspectives with regard to the CDM, examined how their positions are reflected in their own offset programmes, and formulated a basis for discussion on approaches for further CDM reform.

The findings of the project were also debated during a panel discussion with Peer Stiansen, Chair of the CDM Executive Board, Pedro Martins Barata, Research Coordinator for the High-Level Panel on the CDM Policy Dialogue and Rajinder Sahota, Manager, Climate Change Program of the California Air Resources Board. The debate took place on the occasion of the UNFCCC Climate Change Conference in Bonn this month.

The discussion paper is available for download.