London, 3 December 2009 

The extraordinary success of the Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM) lies in the balance as the Parties converge on Copenhagen for this year’s critical climate change talks. The CDM is currently buckling under the weight of its own success, which risks driving away private investors just as it becomes clear how much more private investment is needed. 

Releasing the International Emissions Trading Association’s Report, State of the CDM 2009, from Copenhagen as the fifty-first meeting of the CDM Executive Board (EB) comes to a close, Henry Derwent, IETA’s President and CEO, said: 

“The CDM has driven billions of Euros of clean investment into the developing world and created an economic reason for reducing emissions in exactly the countries where it is needed most.  Yet the challenges facing the mechanism today threaten to bring this momentum to a halt. Investors and service providers are leaving the room just as demand promises to ramp up.  The CDM Executive Board has done a lot to improve, but needs strong guidance and instruction. A comprehensive reform agenda must be agreed in Copenhagen.”

IETA’s State of the CDM 2009 Report explains the structural inadequacies of the CDM and the enduring challenges that they cause for the CDM EB and CDM project participants the world over.  Conscious that previous guidance to the CDM EB has not led to the degree of changes required, the Report suggests that the CMP take a more active role in the implementation of the reform agenda. IETA also provides concrete proposals for addressing many of the most immediate challenges facing the CDM and the issues that are most damaging for continued private investment in low carbon projects in developing countries. 

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