Carbon Conservation: Climate Change, Forests and the Clean Development Mechanism

This report by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) analyzes the design of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, drawing on a case study of Joint Implementation (JI) forest projects in Costa Rica. It evaluates the technical challenges of quantifying carbon sequestration—such as baselines, leakage, and durability—and argues that the CDM must integrate strict legal and institutional safeguards to ensure that forest projects provide genuine climate benefits without undermining biodiversity or the rights of local and indigenous communities.

• The report identifies four critical technical requirements for ensuring that forest sequestration projects provide actual climate benefits: additionality, quantifiability, verifiability, and durability.
• Quantifying carbon benefits is complicated by 'leakage,' where a project causes emissions to increase off-site, such as when protecting one forest area drives logging to another location.
• Costa Rica reduced uncertainty regarding baselines and leakage by expanding its 'system boundary' to a national level through the Protected Areas Project (PAP), which uses national baselines and maintains a 15% forest buffer as insurance against carbon loss.
• To ensure long-term durability of carbon offsets, the report discusses 'real-time' accounting, where carbon is kept sequestered for the same duration as the emitted carbon's atmospheric residency, and 'ton-year' accounting, which equates one ton of emitted carbon with a specific number of ton-years.
• The report warns that without a strong legal framework, polluters may seek the cheapest possible offsets, which could lead to the externalization of costs such as biodiversity loss and socio-economic damage.
• Sustainable development within the CDM requires that projects do not harm natural forests or biodiversity and that they are conducted only with the full consultation and participation of indigenous communities on their lands.
• The report recommends that the CDM initially limit the use of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) to no more than 1% of an Annex I Party's assigned amount to encourage domestic emissions reductions and prevent the mechanism from being abused.
• To ensure transparency and accountability, the report advocates for a written information disclosure policy and a review mechanism to provide remedies to locally affected peoples if project sponsors fail to comply with agreements.
• The report suggests a phased evolution for non-Annex I countries, moving from site-specific projects to national baselines, and eventually to national emissions caps that would allow them to participate fully in the Annex I emissions trading regime.

APA

Goldberg, D. M. (n.d.). Carbon Conservation: Climate Change, Forests and the Clean Development Mechanism. Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CleanDevelopmentMechanismText.pdf

Chicago

Goldberg, Donald M. Carbon Conservation: Climate Change, Forests and the Clean Development Mechanism. Center for International Environmental Law, n.d. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CleanDevelopmentMechanismText.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Goldberg |first1=Donald M. |title=Carbon Conservation: Climate Change, Forests and the Clean Development Mechanism |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CleanDevelopmentMechanismText.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{goldbergndcarbon, author = {Goldberg, Donald M.}, title = {{Carbon Conservation: Climate Change, Forests and the Clean Development Mechanism}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CleanDevelopmentMechanismText.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }