The Sasan Coal Power CDM Project Lessons Learnt for Climate Finance

The document details a discussion on the failure of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects to provide sustainable development, highlighting human rights violations and the lack of social safeguards. It specifically cites the Reliance Sasan Ultra Mega Power Plant in India for violating additionality and stakeholder consultation rules, and coal mining in Colombia for causing coercive displacement and killings. The report emphasizes the urgent need for a grievance mechanism within the CDM and introduces the CDM Benefit Tracker to monitor discrepancies between promised and actual project benefits in India.

• The Reliance Sasan Ultra Mega Power Plant in the Singrauli region of India, which received CDM credits for using super critical boilers, violated regulations regarding local stakeholder consultations and the conditions of additionality due to the absence of a credible baseline.
• The Sasan project failed to meet contractual obligations to provide employment and schooling for affected families, instead forcing indigenous communities and local populations from their homes with minimal compensation.
• Coal mining projects in the Cesar and La Guajira regions of Colombia resulted in the militarization of infrastructure, the silencing of community voices through violence and killings of trade union members, and the reduction of farmer income due to coal dust affecting crop yields.
• The CDM lacks a profound safeguard system, and negotiations for a grievance mechanism have been delayed for five years, with a further postponement to June 2015.
• Carbon Market Watch launched the CDM Benefit Tracker, an interactive map covering 27 projects in India, to expose the lack of incentives for project proponents to follow sustainable development and the inconsistency between promised co-benefits and local realities.

APA

Carbon Market Watch (2014). The Sasan Coal Power CDM Project Lessons Learnt for Climate Finance. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/SASAN-event-REPORT.pdf

Chicago

Carbon Market Watch. The Sasan Coal Power CDM Project Lessons Learnt for Climate Finance. 2014. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/SASAN-event-REPORT.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Carbon Market Watch |title=The Sasan Coal Power CDM Project Lessons Learnt for Climate Finance |date=8 December 2014 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/SASAN-event-REPORT.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{carbonmarketwatch2014sasan, author = {{Carbon Market Watch}}, title = {{The Sasan Coal Power CDM Project Lessons Learnt for Climate Finance}}, institution = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2014}, month = dec, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/SASAN-event-REPORT.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }