CLIMATE

 

Criteria and Indicators for Appraising Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Projects

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5. Indicators of net GHG emissions reductions

A complementary way of defining indicators for the appraisal of CDM projects is to examine their impacts on the sustainability of national development in the recipient country and their benefits to the global climate. This allows the indicators of sustainable development to be compared with the project's contribution to the mitigation of global climate change. In other words, this measure would be equivalent to comparing Indicator 1 with Indicators 2 to 8. The former will always give a positive value, as CDM projects must reduce overall CDM emissions.

The other indicators may generate positive or negative values, depending on the performance of CDM projects compared with the baseline in each case. Positive values will denote a contribution to increased sustainable national development and negative values will denote a subtraction.

Seven new indicators can thus be defined, in different units according to each case:

Indicator 9: Avoided emissions of local pollutant

(Tons/tons of avoided GHG emissions in CO2 equivalent)
 
 

Indicator 10: Net employment generation

(Number of jobs/tons of avoided GHG emissions in CO2 equivalent)
 
 

Indicator 11: Net foreign currency savings

($/tons of avoided GHG emissions in CO2 equivalent)
 
 

Indicator 12: Reduction of direct government investments

($/tons of avoided GHG emissions in CO2 equivalent)
 
 

Indicator 13: Project cost reduction

($/tons of avoided GHG emissions in CO2 equivalent)
 
 

Indicator 14: Reduction of foreign currency expenditures with technology

($/tons of avoided GHG emissions in CO2 equivalent)
 
 

Indicator 15: Reduction in the depletion of non-renewable natural resources

(Tons/tons of avoided GHG emissions in CO2 equivalent)
 
 

The following figure, the 'Star', presents a method for displaying the indicators as a snapshot visual appraisal of CDM projects. The eight indicators are displayed in a scale depicted within eight radial axes from -100 percent (or minus 1) in the outer circle to 100 percent (or positive 1) in the centre of the circle. In cases where values exceed + or -100 percent, the value may be represented as 100 percent point for all values greater than or equal to 100 and similarly at the -100 point for all values greater than or equal to minus 100.
Figure 1. The Star

 The zero value corresponds to the same performance of the indicator as in the baseline. Positive values closer to the centre represent contributions of the CDM project towards increased sustainability. Conversely, negative values further from the centre than the baseline represent losses of sustainability.

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