How will the Clean Development Mechanism ensure transparency, public engagement and accountability

This briefing by the World Resources Institute argues for the integration of transparency, public engagement, and accountability measures into the regulations of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol to ensure its success and legitimacy.

• The success of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which finances lower-emission sustainable development in the countries of the South, depends significantly on public support. Because the CDM market for greenhouse gas offsets will face intense public scrutiny, its governance should actively engage stakeholders including the public and private sectors, local communities, and NGOs to avoid the failures seen in institutions like the World Trade Organization and the Multilateral Agreement on Investment.
• Implementing public participation—defined as access to information, judicial remedy, and participation in decision-making—is essential for achieving the CDM's goal of sustainable development. Such measures are expected to increase project success rates by reducing mismanagement, protracted disputes, and negative publicity.
• The authors provide several specific recommendations to improve the CDM's responsiveness to civil society: requiring project documents to describe community engagement, ensuring timely public access to official reports, creating an independent review panel for disputes, including business and NGO members on the Executive Board, and designing environmental and social impact assessments for high-impact projects.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). How will the Clean Development Mechanism ensure transparency, public engagement and accountability. https://www.wri.org/research/how-will-clean-development-mechanism-ensure-transparency-public-engagement-and

Chicago

World Resources Institute. How will the Clean Development Mechanism ensure transparency, public engagement and accountability. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/how-will-clean-development-mechanism-ensure-transparency-public-engagement-and.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=How will the Clean Development Mechanism ensure transparency, public engagement and accountability |url=https://www.wri.org/research/how-will-clean-development-mechanism-ensure-transparency-public-engagement-and |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendhow, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{How will the Clean Development Mechanism ensure transparency, public engagement and accountability}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/how-will-clean-development-mechanism-ensure-transparency-public-engagement-and}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }