Agriculture and the Clean Development Mechanism

Larson, Donald F. ; Dinar, Ariel ; Frisbie, J. Aapris

关键词: ABATEMENT COSTS;    ACCOUNTING;    AFFORESTATION;    AFFORESTATION PROJECTS;    AGGREGATE EMISSION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-5621
RP-ID  :  WPS5621

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Many experts believe that low-costmitigation opportunities in agriculture are abundant andcomparable in scale to those found in the energy sector.They are mostly located in developing countries and have todo with how land is used. By investing in projects under theClean Development Mechanism (CDM), countries can tap theseopportunities to meet their own Kyoto Protocol obligations.The CDM has been successful in financing some types ofagricultural projects, including projects that capturemethane or use agricultural by-products as an energy source.But agricultural land-use projects are scarce under the CDM.This represents a missed opportunity to promote sustainablerural development since land-use projects that sequestercarbon in soils can help reverse declining soil fertility, aroot cause of stagnant agricultural productivity. This paperreviews the process leading to current CDM implementationrules and describes how the rules, in combination withchallenging features of land-use projects, raise transactioncosts and lower demand for land-use credits. Procedures bywhich developed countries assess their own mitigationperformance are discussed as a way of redressing currentconstraints on CDM investments. Nevertheless, even withimprovements to the CDM, an under-investment in agriculturalland-use projects is likely, since there are hurdles tocapturing associated ancillary benefits privately.Alternative approaches outside the CDM are discussed,including those that build on recent decisions taken bygovernments in Copenhagen and Cancun.