Results
Title

The clean development mechanism's contribution to sustainable development: a review of the literature.

Authors

Olsen, Karen Holm

Abstract

The challenges of how to respond to climate change and ensure sustainable development are currently high on the political agenda among the world's leading nations. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is part of the global carbon market developing rapidly as part of the Kyoto response towards the mitigation of global warming. One of the aims of the CDM is to achieve sustainable development in developing countries, but uncertainty prevails as to whether the CDM is doing what it promises to do. Close to 200 studies on the CDM have been carried out since its birth in 1997 including peer-reviewed articles and reports from the grey literature. This review of the literature serves to assess the state of knowledge on how the CDM contributes to sustainable development (SD) including poverty alleviation. The main finding of the review is that, left to market forces, the CDM does not significantly contribute to sustainable development.

Subjects

GOVERNMENT policy on global warming; GLOBAL temperature changes & the environment; UNITED Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992). Protocols, etc., 1997 December 11; GREENHOUSE effect & the environment; SUSTAINABLE development & the environment; DEVELOPING countries environmental conditions; ECONOMIC development & the environment; CLIMATE change; ENVIRONMENTAL engineering

Publication

Climatic Change, 2007, Vol 84, Issue 1, p59

ISSN

0165-0009

Publication type

Academic Journal

DOI

10.1007/s10584-007-9267-y