CDM- How Clean Is The Clean Development Mechanism?

It is now an accepted fact world over that our climate is changing. Green house gases are released into the air from all daily activities from all around the world. Since the industrial revolution the anthropogenic sources of various green house gases has greatly increased. The atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and methane are considerably higher than any other time in the last 650,000 years. And approximately three quarters of the increase of carbon dioxide in particular, is from human activity over the last 20 years. During the last two decades the world has grown increasingly concerned with the possibly catastrophic results global warming could have on the climate.

    To deal with this situation, the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) was developed in 1992 to work on a new global framework. In the same year an earth summit was held in Rio De Janeiro, where the leading countries shared concern over the changing climate and confirmed results of climate change; they agreed upon the definite movement in agricultural zones, melting of polar ice caps and rising sea levels. A result of all these actions was the Kyoto Protocol; adopted by the FCCC in 1997 which presented a timetable for reducing the carbon footprint of industrialized countries. It was a protocol that was developed to help save our planet, which instead became one of the most debated international controversies of our time.

    the Kyoto Protocol (KP) calls for a large percentage of carbon emission cuts from countries responsible for excessive pollution of the atmosphere; these countries are referred to as the Annex 1 party, developed or industrialized countries. Since their main members consist of the United States of America, Russia, Canada and the United Kingdom, they are also called the North. To make this transition easier for the North, KP also puts a certain flexibility mechanism- the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). This mechanism set the grounds for  carbon trading, the trading agreement which is the root of all major problems in the KP. It is potentially disastrous for the developing countries (or the South) economies in the future; but this looming disaster is hidden behind the tempting immediate development it provides.

                     The Kyoto Protocol Meeting