Fruitful design: the CDM

As the famous Rolling Stone’s song goes: “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, well you might find, you get what you need”. What we want, and what we need are sometimes quite different things. In some ways, this may epitomize the United Nations’ Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a market based mechanism that creates a way for developed countries and companies to offset their emissions by investing in developing country projects that reduce emissions. The mechanism has certainly had its ups and downs in the decade it has been running. Many have wanted more than the mechanism has or could deliver, or expected less than it has actually achieved. Recent analysis by the UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat, shows, however, that the CDM has provided what is really needed and has likely delivered more than it was initially designed to do in some areas.