UN body pitches for carbon credit project growth

Expanding the number of carbon credit projects under the United Nations clean development mechanism and streamlining its regulation are key priorities for the coming year, said Rajesh Kumar Sethi, the new chairman of the CDM Executive Board of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The Executive Board is the de facto regulator of the CDM, which issues carbon emission reductions or carbon credits, but it is guided ultimately by the parties that ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

The CDM is operating in close to 50 countries, and is approaching its thousandth registered project with 128 million carbon credits already issued, the release from UNFCCC said.

"Everyone involved can take some pride in those stats, but until the potential of the mechanism is realised in the lesser developed countries, especially in Africa, we cannot rest," Sethi said.

He, however, said that as a regulator of a market-based mechanism the Board cannot do much except removing unnecessary hindrances to project development.

"Any changes that can make the mechanism run more smoothly, and more predictably, will improve accessibility, and thus increase interest in the mechanism," the chairman said.

This can be achieved through better communication, for example through clear guidance to third-party validators, the private entities accredited to assess projects on the Board's behalf, the release said.

The Executive Board is working with project validators to develop a manual of best practice, which is its top priority, because of its potential to increase the quality of the project proposals submitted to the Board for registration, and hence reduce the number of projects rejected or delayed due to reviews.

The board is also looking at quantifiable methods to assess mass transport projects, he said.

Developed countries are bound by Kyoto Protocol to cut greenhouse gas emissions between 2008 and 2012 by a collective average of at least 5 per cent below their 1990 levels.

One way to cut emission is by buying certified emission reductions, or carbon credits, that are generated by clean development mechanism projects, which reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

A project becomes eligible to sell one credit if it reduces 1 tonnes of greenhouse gas emission.

Total number of Indian projects registered with the UN now is 316, the highest in the world. Out of a total of 952 projects that have been registered, 33.19 per cent are from India.

India's average annual greenhouse gas reductions are pegged at 28.99 million credits by 2012. This is about 14.97 per cent of the world's annual reduction average of 193.73 million.