The Clean Development Mechanism Worldwide and in Brazil - Implementing Environmental and Resource Management - page 70

bution of activities under the CDM, both on a global and regional scale. Further-
more, the case study on a specific project suggests that an impact assessment on
the project level might be insufficient in case of projects with a high potential of
replication.
8.2 Flexible Mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol
In 1992, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change has been adopted to
achieve “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a
level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate
system” (Article 2, UNFCCC, UN 1994). During the following years, there have
been several conferences of the parties on how to implement the convention in re-
ality. At the third conference in Kyoto 1997, the participants agreed on a protocol
on the emission reduction of greenhouse gases by industrialized countries and
countries in transition. The so-called Kyoto Protocol includes regulations and
guidelines on how to fulfil these goals. At the follow-up conferences 2001 in Bonn
and Marrakesh, the contracting nations could agree on open questions and exact
definition of the flexible mechanisms (Betz et al. 2005).
According to their agreement, industrialized and transitional countries have to
reduce their emissions of the six “Kyoto greenhouse gases”, i.e. carbon dioxide,
methane, dinitrogen oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorcarbons and sulfur
hexafluoride. All gases are transferred into CO 2 -equivalents according to their
global warming potential. The obligation to reduce emissions of these greenhouse
gases differs from country to country. The European Union for example, commit-
ted itself to a reduction by 8% during the first commitment period from 2008 to
2012. However, within the EU a burden-sharing agreement regulates the individ-
ual reduction targets for each member state.
Within the frame of the Kyoto Protocol, three so-called “flexible mechanisms”
have been developed to assure cost-efficient ways of fulfilling the emission reduc-
tion obligations set in the Kyoto Protocol. The basic principle is to implement
emission reduction measures where it is most economic, based on the assumption
that climate change is a global problem and therefore it does not make a difference
where these measures are carried out. The first important differentiation is where
emission reductions are realized. For domestic emission reductions, the Kyoto
Protocol establishes the “International Emission Trade” in article 17. This allows
the trade between countries with emission rights granted in the Kyoto Protocol
that are not needed as consequence of emission reduction measures. For example,
if country A has more than enough emission rights, so called “Assigned Amount
Units” (AAUs), it can sell them to country B which needs more emission rights.
This approach has also been taken over by the European Commission for the EU-
wide emission trade of more than 10,000 instalments (Betz et al. 2005). For pro-
jects undertaken in other countries, it is important to differentiate between coun-
tries listed in Annex-I to the UNFCCC and the so-called Non-Annex-I countries.
Both CDM and Joint Implementation (JI) are project based mechanisms. That