Integrating Sustainable Transport Measures into the Clean Development Mechanism

Abstract

While the number of projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is expanding rapidly, there currently are relatively few transport projects in the global CDM portfolio. This article examines existing CDM transport projects and explores whether sectoral approaches to the CDM may provide a better framework for transport than the current project‐based CDM. We ask: Would a sectoral approach to the CDM promote the structural change and integrated policymaking needed to achieve sustainable transport policy, making it hence more desirable than the framework of the current project‐based CDM? We conclude that it is possible to design sectoral transport activities within clear project boundaries that fit into a framework of a programmatic or policy‐based CDM. Although we are able to ascertain that transport policy research yields several modelling tools to address the methodological requirements of the CDM, it becomes apparent that sectoral approaches will accentuate transport projects’ problems regarding high complexity and related uncertainties. The CDM may need new rules to manage these risks. Nonetheless, sectoral approaches allow the scaling up of activities to a level that affects long‐term structural change.

Acknowledgements

This collaboration was made possible through the financial support by the German Ministry for the Environment as part of the JIKO Project. An earlier version of this article was published as a JIKO Policy Paper and presented at the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2006. We would like to thank the participants of the Berlin Conference 2006 (Workshop on Mobility) and the participants of the Summer Study 2007 of the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ECEEE) for their feedback at presentations. Furthermore, we are particularly indebted to Stefan Thomas, John Drexhage, Lew Fulton, Jürg Grütter, Emilio Lèbre La Rovère and three anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this text. We would also like to thank Kristina Kebeck and Christian Gander for their research assistance.