By RTCC Staff
The 5000th project is a 74,000 MWh wind farm in the Dominican Republic (Source: Paolo Dala/Creative Commons)
The Los Cocos Wind Farm in the Dominican Republic has become the UN-backed Clean Development Mechanism’s (CDM) 5000th project.
The wind farm is expected to generate 74,200 MWh of electricity and displace 54,183 tonnes of CO2 previously generated by fossil fuel power plants.
The CDM allows countries with emissions reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to offset their greenhouse gas emissions by paying for projects in the developing world – creating both climate mitigation and sustainable development benefits.
Good news has been in short supply for the CDM in recent weeks.
The global carbon market has been swamped with Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits generated by the CDM and Joint Implementation (JI) Mechanism, reducing their effectiveness and placing pressure on countries to raise their national carbon reduction targets as a consequence.
This, combined with a glut of Assigned Amount Units (AAUs) generated by the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol has sent the global price for carbon spiralling, leading to the chair of a high level panel assigned to monitor the CDM to say it had “essentially collapsed” and label the global carbon market “profoundly weak”.
The latest milestone was reached just over a week before countries meet at the COP18 climate summit in Qatar to discuss the future of the Kyoto Protocol, under which the CDM exists.
RTCC VIDEO: UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres says she is confident COP18 talks in Doha will be a success
UN climate chief Christiana Figueres 14/11 from Responding to Climate Change on Vimeo.