Reality Check Mexico: Who Participates in the CDM

Transparencia Mexicana analysed 150 Project Design Documents (PDDs) for CDM projects in Mexico as of June 2012 to evaluate the integrity of public consultation processes. The study found that a lack of regulation allows project developers full discretion over consultation design, leading to poor reporting of results and minimal recording of public requests for mitigation or compensation. The authors argue that current guidelines are insufficient and recommend reforming the CDM consultation process to better facilitate interactions between diverse stakeholders, including local communities, academics, and specialized public authorities, to prevent manipulation and exploitation.

• The quality of consultation processes, the reporting of their results, and the ability of stakeholders to influence project approval in Mexico are negatively impacted by a lack of regulation and guidelines.
• Project developers and consultants have total control over how consultations are designed and executed. While 61% of projects used a combination of methods, the most common single method was public assembly at 31%, followed by calls for comments (3%), direct interviews (3%), and surveys (2%).
• Reporting on consultation characteristics and results is generally poor. Only 64% of projects mentioned an attendee list, and of those, only 45% actually included the list in the PDD. Only 27% recorded the existence of meeting minutes, and no projects attached or reproduced those minutes in the documents. Additionally, only 50% of documents recorded the questions and answers from hearings.
• There is a significant lack of recorded public demands in PDDs, with only 10% of documents recording compensation requests and 7.3% recording mitigation requests. This may be due to inadequate communication channels, a lack of public awareness that they can make demands, or insufficient project information available to stakeholders.
• Requests for mitigation measures are more likely to occur when specialized authorities are involved in the consultation and interact with local community members, reflecting a deeper public understanding of the actual impacts of CDM projects compared to compensation requests.

APA

Bohórquez, E., & Brandão, B. (2012). Reality Check Mexico: Who Participates in the CDM. Carbon Market Watch. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2012/08/27/reality-check-mexico-who-participates-in-the-cdm-watch-this-2/

Chicago

Bohórquez, Eduardo, and Bruno Brandão. Reality Check Mexico: Who Participates in the CDM. Carbon Market Watch, 2012. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2012/08/27/reality-check-mexico-who-participates-in-the-cdm-watch-this-2/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bohórquez |first1=Eduardo |last2=Brandão |first2=Bruno |title=Reality Check Mexico: Who Participates in the CDM |publisher=Carbon Market Watch |date=27 August 2012 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2012/08/27/reality-check-mexico-who-participates-in-the-cdm-watch-this-2/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bohrquez2012reality, author = {Bohórquez, Eduardo and Brandão, Bruno}, title = {{Reality Check Mexico: Who Participates in the CDM}}, institution = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2012}, month = aug, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2012/08/27/reality-check-mexico-who-participates-in-the-cdm-watch-this-2/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }