CDM/GS4GG

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges faced by countries, governments, economies, and the public around the world. It affects both human health and the natural world, and may lead to dramatic changes in the way resources are used, produced, and other economic activities. Therefore, measures are being developed and taken at the international, regional, national and local levels to control greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) refers to one of the flexible fulfillment mechanisms introduced in the Kyoto Protocol. Its core content is to allow Annex I countries (developed countries) and non-Annex I countries (developing countries) to transfer and acquire project-level emission reduction, in order to implement greenhouse gas emission reduction projects in developing countries.

Gold Standard was established in 2003 by WWF and other international NGOs to ensure projects that reduced carbon emissions featured the highest levels of environmental integrity and also contributed to sustainable development. With the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, a best practice standard for climate and sustainable development interventions was launched, Gold Standard for the Global Goals (GS4GG), to maximize impact, creating value for people around the world and the planet we share.

CEPREI Certification Body is a Designated Operational Entity (DOE) approved by the UNFCCC-CDM program and a GS Validation and Verification Body (GS-VVB) approved by GS4GG program, and is qualified to carry out the validation and verification of CDM/GS4GG projects.

Validation: The project developer contracts with a DOE/GS-VVB, which is responsible for reviewing the project to confirm whether it meets the requirements and guidelines of UNFCCC-CDM or GS4GG, and submits the validation report to the CDM-EB to apply for project registration, or project developer of GS4GG project. After a project passes the assessment done by CDM-EB or GS-TAC and is successfully registered on the registry of UNFCCC-CDM or GS4GG, it becomes a CDM/GS4GG project.

Verification: A DOE/GS-VVB contracted by the project developer independently verifies and certifies the emission reductions of a registered CDM/GS4GG project in a specified duration (usually referred to as a monitoring period).

For UNFCCC-CDM, through cooperation, developing countries can obtain funds and technology, which helps to achieve sustainable development. Developed countries can significantly reduce the high cost of reducing carbon emissions in their own countries. Through the cooperation in CDM, developing countries sell carbon emission reductions generated by CDM projects to developed countries for profit.

For GS4GG, people can contribute to combating climate change and supporting sustainable development by purchasing GS-VERs etc., which is a better way to demonstrate how taking action to eliminate climate pollution can also catalyse clean energy access, thriving natural ecosystems, better health, gender equality, and economic opportunity for communities the world over.

(Note: In this figure, the grey indicates the project developer, yellow indicates the validation body and green indicates the EB.)