Earth Equity News

Is the Clean Development Mechanism Slumping Toward Extinction? By Nathanial Gronewold, NYTimes, March 20, 2009. "A perfect storm of bad economic and political trends could spell doom for the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the U.N. program that allows developed countries to offset greenhouse gas emissions by making reductions in the developing world... The biggest problem for the CDM is the sharp economic downturn in the European Union, where collapsing industrial activity is cutting nations' emissions of greenhouse gases, resulting in less need for the E.U. allowances (EUAs) mandated under the European union's cap-and-trade program and less need for Certified Emission Reductions (CERs)... CDM project developers -- especially those active in Brazil, Mexico, China and India -- are also pulling back as they face much weaker to nonexistent profitability, but also largely because of uncertain political winds that suggest the CDM as it's known today could be coming to an end... Analysts report that both Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill are still deeply skeptical of the CDM, mindful of some early criticisms of the program and the stigma associated with the unregulated voluntary offset market."