University of East Anglia | University of Sussex / by Peter Newell and Jon Phillips
www.uea.ac.uk/dev/gcd/PolicyBriefing003
[From Press Release] Environmental, economic and development experts will debate whether the commitment to carbon markets is the right approach to tackle climate change at the public event ‘Carbon Markets for the Poor – A Contradiction in Terms?’ on November 15 at UEA London.
The event will launch a new research briefing paper which calls for a major shake-up of the way the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is governed – to promote transparency and accountability, create channels for greater public input, and ultimately ensure the benefits of sustainable development are passed to poor communities…
It investigates which actors, institutions and policy-making processes involved in clean development are resulting in effective climate action and development benefits, which are not, and why…
Key findings:
- Stronger and more effective institutions from local to international level are required to steer the CDM toward climate and development goals.
- Local communities and the public have few opportunities to directly engage with CDM procedures and little political influence over CDM policy. Improved access to information is important but it does not do away with the need for representation of stakeholders.
- The CDM’s potential to reach citizens bypassed by other forms of finance can be enhanced by aligning the mechanism with national policies and coordinated donor initiatives.
- Crucially, the political barriers to the uptake of clean technologies run deeper than carbon markets and the scope of technocratic reform programmes that have been proposed to date. Wider political changes are required in the way institutions function and politics are conducted to reward the winners from a low carbon energy economy as well as address the potential losers…
