UN Launches CDM Bazaar Web-Portal to Serve Clean Development Mechanism

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today the launch of the CDM Bazaar, a web portal designed to facilitate exchange of information among buyers, sellers and service providers engaged in the Kyoto Protocol's clean development mechanism (CDM).

Under the CDM, projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries and contribute to sustainable development can earn certified emission reduction (CER) credits. Countries with a commitment under the Kyoto Protocol buy CERs to cover a portion of their emission reduction commitments under the Protocol.

"The CDM has seen exponential growth in number of projects, with strong interest in developing countries for projects and in developed countries for CERs. The CDM Bazaar will do just what its name suggests ? help buyers and sellers, and all those that serve the market, get down to business," said Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC in Bonn.

The CDM Bazaar was designed by the carbon finance team at the UNEP RISOE Centre in Denmark in cooperation with the UNFCCC secretariat. The website allows stakeholders in the CDM to post information, such as potential emission reduction projects looking for financing, CERs available for sale, buyers looking for carbon credits to purchase, services available, carbon market related events, and employment opportunities.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, said: "The CDM is playing an important role in meeting the climate change challenge. However, if the benefits are to be more widely shared, especially in areas such as sub-Saharan Africa, more efforts need to be put into building developing-country capacity. The CDM Bazaar is therefore a very welcome new networking initiative with the potential to complement and perhaps broaden the impacts of the physical carbon fairs and Expos now emerging in parts of the world."

By posting on the CDM Bazaar the CERs they have for sale, developing-country CDM project proponents can expect competitive offers from carbon credit buyers. The website is not, however, meant to be a trading platform for CERs, but rather an information exchange platform designed to create opportunities for CER buyers and sellers and CDM service providers.

For more information visit CDM Bazaar

Source: United Nations Environment Programme