London, 27 July (Argus) — The clean development mechanism (CDM) executive board's (EB's) recent work to improve its registration and issuance process threatens to do more harm than good, according to UK-based industry lobby group Carbon Markets and Investors Association (CMIA).

The EB's new approvals process is in danger of creating further delays in the registration of CDM projects and the issuance of certified emission reduction (CER) units, CMIA said today. It warns that the new CDM procedures could further erode investor confidence in the mechanism.

“It is likely that the changes which have been implemented will not improve the issue of efficiency and timely consideration of registration and issuance requests. Instead we feel the new processes could have the opposite effect and add further delays to the already lengthy approvals process and based on what very well could be an editorial mistake,” the lobby group's director Miles Austin said.

Under the EB's new procedural rules for registration and issuance, projects must undergo three steps. But the new rules imply that a submission could fail the final stage of the process even if this submission was made in the correct form at the time of upload, according to CMIA. The lobby group has accused the board of being very unclear. “EB must clarify that where a project is submitted in compliance with EB rules at the date of submission, these rules will continue to apply to that submission throughout its approval process notwithstanding any rule changes that EB may apply after the application date,” CMIA said.

Some projects have recently failed checks on the basis of spelling and punctuation errors in their submissions, CMIA said, adding that this is unacceptable because it holds no relation to a project's environmental integrity, additionality or emissions reductions.

CER issuances have been exceptionally low throughout July and are unlikely to pick up significantly anytime soon, according to CMIA. “Issuance projections for future months are likely to be less than optimal. Although issuance levels may increase at a later stage, the backlog and overall timelines for issuance remains a significant concern,” the lobby group said.

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