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The report criticizes the World Bank for its continued investment in 'dirty energy' and its leadership in expanding carbon markets. It highlights specific projects, such as the Medupi coal plant in South Africa and the Nam Theun 2 dam in Laos, as evidence of environmental and social harm. The document further contends that the Bank's promotion of REDD and carbon offsets leads to the privatization of forests and the marginalization of indigenous rights, while its role as an interim trustee for the Green Climate Fund is viewed as undemocratic and conflicted.

The document examines the governance of climate finance across three developing regions, arguing that funding is heavily skewed toward mitigation over adaptation and private over public sources. It highlights that this imbalance often ignores the urgent needs of the most vulnerable populations and the preference of developing nations for public finance to address historical climate debt. Additionally, it critiques the role of regional development banks, noting conflicts of interest where banks fund both fossil-fuel and renewable energy projects while prioritizing loans over grants.

The document examines the governance of climate finance in developing countries, highlighting systemic failures in accountability, stakeholder representation, and benefit sharing. It argues that climate finance is often driven by donor priorities rather than local needs, leading to conflicts of interest and the marginalization of indigenous and local communities.

The document argues that climate finance priorities should be driven by local environmental and developmental needs rather than donor preferences. It advocates for a bottom-up approach, the delinking of public and private funding to prevent profit-driven motives from overriding social needs, and the implementation of rigorous safeguards to ensure the integrity of emission-reducing projects. The brief emphasizes the need for downward accountability to affected communities, inclusive decision-making, and the protection of indigenous livelihoods to prevent climate finance from becoming a source of social instability or conflict.

CDM Watch opposes the validation of the Thoothukudi Thermal Power Project in India, asserting that the project is not additional and would lead to the issuance of Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) that do not represent actual emissions reductions.

The report evaluates the EU ETS, concluding that emissions trading is an effective tool for reducing CO2 emissions with modest macroeconomic impacts. It highlights the risks of free allowance allocation, such as windfall profits and reduced economic efficiency, and recommends a transition toward auctioning. The document also identifies that international competitiveness risks are concentrated in a few carbon-intensive sectors and suggests tailored solutions like benchmarked free allocation or multilateral border adjustments to prevent carbon leakage.

The statement outlines requirements for a fair appeals process for CDM Executive Board decisions, emphasizing the need for an independent appeals body, broad legal standing for civil society organizations, and the ability to challenge both procedural and substantive violations.

CDM Watch recommends several procedural improvements to the CDM Executive Board to enhance accessibility and communication for civil society, including better notification systems, language translation of project documents, and extended public commenting periods.

The research investigates the risk of 'double-counting' international offsets, where both the buying developed country and the supplying developing country claim the same emission reduction toward their pledges. Using a spreadsheet model based on McKinsey abatement cost curves, the authors find that if offsets count twice, global abatement could be reduced by up to 1.6 billion tons CO2e in 2020. This dilution could increase the existing emissions gap by as much as 20%, potentially hindering the goal of limiting warming to 2°C. The paper compares this to a 'Buyer Only' scenario and proposes remedies such as shared crediting, partitioning eligible sectors, and implementing a common international transaction tracking mechanism.

The document explores the intersection of climate change and the right to development (RTD), arguing that RTD is not a 'right to pollute' but a framework for a 'technological leap' toward non-carbon development. It emphasizes that industrialized countries bear the responsibility for providing financial and technological support to developing nations. The author advocates for development models integrated with biological cycles, such as agroecology, and critiques carbon-based industrial models like the American Corn Belt. The briefing also evaluates the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under RTD criteria, finding uneven benefit distribution and a lack of human rights considerations. Finally, it positions RTD as a 'moral compass' for the transition to a green economy, referencing the Rio+20 process and the Cancun outcomes of the UNFCCC.

The submission argues that the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has already failed its primary objectives and that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is unlikely to meet the specific requirements of this offset framework, making its inclusion inappropriate.

The paper argues that Sectoral Approaches (SAs)—which the author suggests renaming to Sectoral Approaches, Agreements and Measures (SAAMs)—are most viable when designed as domestic policies first rather than top-down international agreements. Through analysis of the steel sector in China, India, and Japan, the document finds that national sovereignty and diverse domestic priorities make a common international solution unlikely. It concludes that SAAMs can co-exist with carbon pricing and that their implementation is hindered by both political sensitivities and technical challenges, such as data gaps and the difficulty of setting international benchmarks.

The report examines the consistency of grid emission factors (grid EFs) published by host country DNAs with CDM rules. It finds that most DNAs provide insufficient data for external verification and identifies overestimations of grid EFs and coal benchmarks in China and India. Specifically, it notes inconsistent sampling in China and the omission of non-CDM renewable plants in India's build margin calculations. The study estimates that these deficiencies led to an over-crediting of 11 million pre-2012 CERs for electricity-related projects in these two countries, representing approximately 2.5% of their total CER volume.

A coalition of environmental and human rights organizations is challenging the registration of the Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Project (PA #3237) in Western Panama. The groups argue that the project's additionality is questionable and raise serious concerns regarding the lack of public consultation, the potential misuse of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) for community compensation, and human rights abuses by GENISA against the Ngobe indigenous peoples.

The document assesses various Sectoral Approach (SA) models for the Chinese iron and steel (I&S) industry, concluding that ex-post crediting based on carbon intensity reduction targets is the most suitable methodology. It identifies the I&S sector as a critical area for China to meet its 2020 carbon intensity reduction target of 40% to 45%. The study projects that under a 'technology penetration enhanced scenario', emission intensity could decrease by 34% by 2020 compared to 2005 levels, generating up to 709 million tons of CO2 emission reduction credits by 2030. Key barriers to implementation include poor data availability, commercial sensitivity, and the high heterogeneity of technology levels across enterprises.

CDM Watch argues that HFC-23 and N2O abatement projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) create perverse incentives and fail to represent real emission reductions. The organization calls on EU Member States to support a European Commission draft Regulation that bans the use of these credits in the EU ETS from 1 January 2013 and prohibits their banking into Phase 3 to maintain environmental integrity over private investor interests.

The executive summary evaluates the EU ETS's role in driving low-carbon investment, finding that while it provides a useful framework, its impact is hindered by the Clean Development Mechanism, inadequate financial reporting standards, and short investment horizons for energy efficiency.

Biofuel Watch, Salva la Selva/Rettet den Regenwald, and CDM Watch have challenged the proposed CDM project 3197 in Bajo Aguan, Honduras. The organizations argue that the project fails to meet 'sustainable development' and additionality requirements due to the project developer's alleged human rights abuses and disputed land claims.

The report evaluates the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and its impact on the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and developing nations. It finds that a significant portion of CDM projects lack additionality, leading to global emission increases and reduced domestic abatement in Europe. The authors argue that the CDM has failed to facilitate meaningful technology transfer or support a systemic shift to low-carbon development in host countries, often subsidizing carbon-intensive activities instead. To address these failures, the report proposes supply-side restrictions on project eligibility and demand-side reforms in the EU, such as auctioning the right to use CERs, to ensure the mechanism serves as a transitional tool rather than a permanent subsidy regime.

The report evaluates the EU ETS's impact on corporate investment behavior, finding that while it successfully reduced investment in carbon-intensive assets, its ability to trigger a shift toward low-carbon strategies is hindered by insufficient stringency and the use of free allowances. It highlights that the current cap reduction trajectory is insufficient to meet the EU's 80-95% emission reduction goal by 2050 and argues that the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) creates uncertainty and reduces effective emission targets. The authors recommend tightening the ETS cap, phasing out offsets, reforming IFRS accounting practices to reflect the true value of allowances, and combining carbon pricing with technology-specific support schemes to create a more enabling environment for low-carbon projects.