Clean Development Mechanism

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) sounds like something I could need for my dusty apartment these days, as the sunshine shows every speck of dust all too clearly. We are having very warm weather in central Japan, with temperatures around 14-15 C every day. Cherry blossoms have already started blooming in Ueno Park, about a month too early.

However, if you know a little about the Kyoto Protocol, you are probably familiar with the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Hisane Masaki at Asia Times explains:

Japan's government and businesses are increasingly turning to an array of "Kyoto mechanisms" as attractive means of achieving the target at a lower cost while maintaining the international competitiveness of the nation's economy.

These involve "credits" that firms earn in return for gas-reduction investments in developing countries, which can be counted as cuts in their own emissions - and in turn, in Japan's - under a system called the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), one of the three mechanisms introduced under the protocol to help industrialized countries meet their reduction targets. Developing nations that take part also benefit by receiving technology transfers from their industrialized partners.

The two other mechanisms are Joint Implementation (JI) and international emissions trading.


The Japanese government has approved 115 projects to reduce CO2 emissions, many of them CDM projects in Asian and Latin American countries. Of the 115 Japanese government-approved projects, 25 are in China, 17 in Brazil and 10 in India. Also, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, one of the world's biggest international financial institutions, is expanding its environment-related business activities. JBIC is signing partnership agreements with many developing countries, such as El Salvador, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Brazil.

Read more: Happy Birthday, Kyoto, but...

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