Good-Bye Kyoto: TRANSITIONING AWAY FROM OFFSETTING AFTER 2020

The policy brief examines the transition from the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to the Paris Agreement's Sustainable Development Mechanism (SDM). It argues that the CDM's offsetting model is obsolete in a world where all countries have climate commitments and recommends abolishing carbon offsetting in favor of results-based climate finance. The author highlights significant failures of the CDM, including the fact that approximately 73% of potential credits between 2013 and 2020 likely did not represent real emission reductions. Key recommendations include stopping CDM project registration by COP 24 in 2018 and ending the use of CDM credits by 2023.

• The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was designed as an offsetting tool for a bifurcated world of developed countries with targets and developing countries without them, whereas the Sustainable Development Mechanism (SDM) must operate where all countries have climate commitments.
• A significant portion of CDM carbon credits are considered ineffective; an estimated 73% of potential credits from 2013 to 2020 are likely 'bogus' and do not represent actual, measurable emission reductions.
• The CDM failed to achieve overall global emission reductions because its design allowed developed countries to increase emissions as long as they were offset by reductions in developing countries.
• The CDM created perverse incentives that may have discouraged developing countries from implementing climate-friendly policies to avoid reducing the number of credits they could receive.
• The author recommends that the SDM should be designed for results-based climate finance, where emission reductions quantify the impact of finance rather than serving as offsets to allow emissions elsewhere.
• To ensure a clean transition to the Paris Agreement framework, the document proposes stopping CDM project registration as of COP 24 in 2018 and ending the use of CDM credits by 2023.

APA

Kachi, A. (2017). Good-Bye Kyoto: TRANSITIONING AWAY FROM OFFSETTING AFTER 2020. Carbon Market Watch. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Good-bye-Kyoto_Transitioning-away-from-offsetting-after-2020_WEB_1final.pdf

Chicago

Kachi, Aki. Good-Bye Kyoto: TRANSITIONING AWAY FROM OFFSETTING AFTER 2020. Carbon Market Watch, 2017. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Good-bye-Kyoto_Transitioning-away-from-offsetting-after-2020_WEB_1final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kachi |first1=Aki |title=Good-Bye Kyoto: TRANSITIONING AWAY FROM OFFSETTING AFTER 2020 |publisher=Carbon Market Watch |date=April 2017 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Good-bye-Kyoto_Transitioning-away-from-offsetting-after-2020_WEB_1final.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kachi2017goodbye, author = {Kachi, Aki}, title = {{Good-Bye Kyoto: TRANSITIONING AWAY FROM OFFSETTING AFTER 2020}}, institution = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2017}, month = apr, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Good-bye-Kyoto_Transitioning-away-from-offsetting-after-2020_WEB_1final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }