Transitioning Away from Large-Scale Power Projects: a Simple and Effective Fix for the CDM?

The document assesses the impact of large-scale power projects on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), noting that these projects are expected to generate nearly 70% of total CERs between 2013 and 2020. It argues that additionality for these projects is difficult to demonstrate, potentially leading to a global increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The authors propose phasing out these projects to stabilize the carbon market and shifting support toward national policies like feed-in tariffs and carbon taxes.

• Large-scale power supply projects are expected to dominate the CDM pipeline, projected to generate nearly 70% of total CERs between 2013 and 2020, with large-scale projects accounting for over 90% of those power-sector credits.
• There are significant concerns regarding the additionality of large-scale power projects (over 15 MW), specifically for wind, hydropower, natural gas, higher-efficiency coal, and iron and steel waste gas projects.
• If large-scale power supply projects are mostly non-additional, they could increase cumulative global greenhouse gas emissions by more than one gigaton of CO2e through 2020.
• The CDM's influence on the rate of return for power sector projects is often minimal (approximately 3% for wind and hydropower), making it difficult to determine if the CDM was the deciding factor for project implementation.
• A projected supply-demand gap for CERs between 2013 and 2020 is estimated at roughly 1.25 billion CERs, with a total supply of 2.5 billion and demand of only half that amount.
• Transitioning away from large-scale power projects could remove up to 1.6 billion CERs from the 2013-2020 forecast, depending on whether the policy involves disallowing CERs issued after 2012, ceasing renewals, or stopping new registrations.
• The authors recommend that the CDM Executive Board and Meeting of Parties cease registrations and renewals for large-scale power projects, and that buying countries stop purchasing CERs from these projects after a specific date.
• Alternative mechanisms for supporting low-carbon power in developing countries include renewable energy standards, feed-in tariffs, efficiency programs, domestic emission trading systems, and carbon taxes.

APA

Lazarus, M., Erickson, P., & Spalding-Fecher, R. (2012). Transitioning Away from Large-Scale Power Projects: a Simple and Effective Fix for the CDM? Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/sei-pb-2012-cdm-large-power-projects.pdf

Chicago

Lazarus, Michael, Peter Erickson, and Randall Spalding-Fecher. Transitioning Away from Large-Scale Power Projects: a Simple and Effective Fix for the CDM? Stockholm Environment Institute, 2012. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/sei-pb-2012-cdm-large-power-projects.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Lazarus |first1=Michael |last2=Erickson |first2=Peter |last3=Spalding-Fecher |first3=Randall |title=Transitioning Away from Large-Scale Power Projects: a Simple and Effective Fix for the CDM? |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=2012 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/sei-pb-2012-cdm-large-power-projects.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lazarus2012transitioning, author = {Lazarus, Michael and Erickson, Peter and Spalding-Fecher, Randall}, title = {{Transitioning Away from Large-Scale Power Projects: a Simple and Effective Fix for the CDM?}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2012}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/sei-pb-2012-cdm-large-power-projects.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }