Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The international Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), for example, provides a means
for carbon-emissions-reduction projects in developing countries. The CDM was devised to
offer developing countries a measure of flexibility in meeting their obligations under the
Kyoto Protocol. Developed countries (Annex I countries under the Kyoto Protocol desig-
nation) can earn Certified Emissions Reductions (commonly called “carbon credits”) by
investing in sustainable-development projects in the developing world. By showing that
their financial assistance was key to setting up an emissions-reduction project that other-
wise would not have gone forward for lack of financing, developed countries can subtract
these carbon credits from their own portfolios as a way of meeting their obligations under
the Kyoto Protocol.
A wide range of projects throughout the developing world, from biogas facilities to wind
farms, receive foreign investment under the CDM. By a large margin, however, the cat-
egory of projects that attracts the most CDM investment is hydropower (Thomas, Dar-
gusch, and Griffiths 2011); corporations from around the globe see the potential financial
benefits of investing in dams and counting such investments as part of their “green portfo-
lio.” Hundreds of dam projects throughout the world are under way with CDM assistance.
In a conversation with a staff member from CDM Watch, an NGO that monitors the
carbon-exchange market, I learned that there are several problems with the CDM as it is
currentlyconceived.First,thenotionthatdamsresultinanetreductionofcarbonemissions
is a questionable scientific proposition; whether hydropower is seen as “clean” or “green”
depends ultimately on how one measures it. If it means reducing fossil-fuel consumption
and greenhouse gas emissions, hydropower probably is clean, but we also have to acknow-
ledge that large reservoirs in heavily vegetated areas usually release thousands or millions
of tons of methane, one of the most potent of greenhouse gases, as the biomatter beneath
the reservoir decomposes. If we include in this calculation the impacts on water quality,
sediment, river morphology, riparian habitats and species, and other factors, hydropower is
much less green than it first appears.
Perhaps the most problematic aspect of carbon-market schemes such as CDM relates to
what policy documents refer to as “additionality.” In order to receive carbon credits, an
agency or company from an Annex I country must prove that a given emissions-reduction
project—such as a dam—in a developing country would not have gone forward without
financial assistance and that reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are therefore “addi-
tional.” CDM Watch contends that the carbon-exchange market is rife with corruption, that
powerfulgovernmentsandcorporateinterests manipulate thesystemintheirfavor,andthat
decisions are made to move forward with many projects before a comprehensive analysis
can be done.
4
Meanwhile, global environmental discourse in recent years has largely shifted away
from biodiversity conservation and related concepts and toward climate change as the prin-
cipal concern. In the process, many hydropower-development interests seem more than
