Assessing the functioning of Clean Development Mechanism: a cross-country comparison
Student name: Mr Anshumaan Tuteja
Guide: Prof Kanchan Chopra
Year of completion: 2015
Host Organisation: TERI University
Abstract: The present study is an assessment of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) on three broad levels. At the global level, we analyze the factors determining distribution of number of registered projects in a country per year under CDM. In contrast to the existing literature on CDMs, we utilize a panel data framework that encompasses the first commitment period (2005-2012) for 85 countries, and apply count models which account for over-dispersion in the data. Apart from greenhouse gas reductions potential and infrastructure, we find that experience of a country in the CDM programme significantly increases the counts of CDM projects and membership in the Executive Board has a positive influence on unilateral CDM projects. We then focus our attention on the extent of technology transfer under CDM for the renewables sector in India by using text-analysis in Project Design Documents. Additionally, we examine whether there has been an early application of technologies in the wind sector by comparing CDM registered wind projects with non-CDM wind projects in three states of India. We find evidence that transfer of technology declined over the first commitment period, there is co-existence of CDM projects with counterfactuals in the wind sector and that there is no conclusive evidence indicating early technology application via CDM. Finally, we conclude with a micro-level case study of a non-additional wind project that got registration under the CDM to highlight the weakly sustainable nature of renewable projects under the CDM.
