UN Approval of Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Projects in Developing Countries: The Political Economy of the CDM Executive Board.

by Florens Flues, Axel Michaelowa and Katharina Michaelowa

- The approval of methodologies and individual projects in the context of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is often an issue of national interest. Decisions of the CDM Executive Board (EB) can thus be expected to be highly politicized. Based on data for about 250 methodologies and about 1000 projects discussed by the EB so far, this paper provides a first econometric analysis of this hypothesis. The results suggest that indeed, along with formal quality criteria, political-economic variables determine the final EB decision.

Flues, F., A. Michaelowa and K. Michaelowa (2008). UN Approval of Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Projects in Developing Countries: The Political Economy of the CDM Executive Board. Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS), ETH, Zurich, Jun 2008.