Podcast: Is cap-and-trade working?

Eva Filzmoser coordinates CDM Watch, which monitors the work of the CDM and serves as an independent advocate for its reform.

She talked to TI about the challenges governance and corruption pose to the CDM and how NGOs are calling for more accountability.

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One of the main issues of TI’s climate change report is the corruption risk in mitigation, discussed in part four. Many emissions trading or “cap-and-trade mechanisms”, such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), have already been vulnerable to fraud.

Set up by the Kyoto Protocol, the CDM began operating in 2001, and is the flagship global cap and trade project. The CDM allows industrialised countries to offset their emissions by buying carbon credits, and in doing so provide funding for officially certified emission-reduction measures in developing countries, in areas such as clean energy and reforestation.

Last year, however, high profile scandals cast doubt on the effectiveness of the CDM and its management. The validation process in particular has raised questions as to whether carbon credits represent a real reduction in emissions.