Publication date: 2009-01-01
First published in: Energy Policy
Authors: B. Lloyd, S. Subbarao
Abstract:
The “Sustainable Development” aspect of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol is examined, about its current impact on crucial developmental issues.
The paper discusses the immediate and urgent global concerns of developmental needs, energy, and climate change while highlighting their influence on the poor in the developing world. The global responses to address the above concerns regarding renewable energy technologies, policies, and strategies that can be instrumental in addressing the issues are discussed, with the main emphasis on the CDM under the Kyoto Protocol. The critical issue of whether the CDM can address poverty alleviation and sustainable development in developing countries is discussed in the context of existing market principles, transparency of the mechanism, economics, and the daunting bureaucratic procedures involved.
The paper concludes that the CDM if suitably modified, can go some way to address sustainable development and alleviate poverty for poor rural areas and not increase emissions by a focus on renewable energy technologies. This result can be achieved as the energy consumption of rural sectors is currently so small about developed economies that only small additional renewable energy generation capacities are needed to make a measurable difference.
Published in: Energy Policy, Volume 37, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 237-245
Available from: ScienceDirect