EU-China CDM Facilitation Project

Project Overview

Location:
China

Dates:
March 2007 - March 2010

Funding Body:
European Commission

Project Status:
Completed

At the EU China Summit in September 2005 the EU and China agreed a Partnership on Climate Change. The “Joint Declaration on Climate Change between China and the European Union” states that:

“We will co-operate to strengthen the implementation of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), exchange information on CDM projects and encourage our companies to engage in CDM projects co-operation. We will engage in dialogue on improving and further developing the CDM. We will facilitate the exchange of information and experience on the design and practical implementation of other market-based instruments such as emissions trading and on assessing the costs and benefits of their use.”

The EU‐China CDM Facilitation Project aimed to strengthen the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) as a central pillar within China’s path to sustainable development. Through a series of activities including policy research; capacity building and training programmes; high‐level policy tours; and wider stakeholder communication the project focused on China’s CDM policies and legislations and provided recommendations to policy‐makers on how to strengthen and improve the CDM.

The CDM was initiated by the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) and has been defined as allowing emission reduction projects in developing countries to earn Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits, each equivalent to one tonne of CO2. These CERs can be traded and sold, and used by industrialised countries to a meet a part of their emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol.

The development of CDM in China is intended to support China maintain environmental sustainability without compromising its economic growth. To date, China has been a major beneficiary of CDM projects which underlined the need to further strengthen the capacity of this market-based instrument.

DEVELOPMENT Solutions, in consortium with IVL (the Swedish Environmental Research Institute), the Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy (PRCEE) of the State Environmental Protection Administration of China (SEPA), TUV Rheinland and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) helped strengthen the capacity of China’s Designated National Authority (DNA) and its national CDM executive board. The project also provided total quality management of the CDM development process and capacity building of Operational Entities that adhere to European and international standards.

The project was successfully completed by virtue of a final dissemination conference held in Beijing in November 2009. The conference provided a platform to communicate the project’s key results and achievements. The project also organised/co‐organised two side‐events during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in order to disseminate the project’s results.

Please click here to link to the project website.