Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification Manual for Clean Development Mechanism Projects

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a market mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol, has been successful in supporting mitigation actions through carbon finance. With nearly 7,700 projects and 290 Program of Activities registered by the CDM Executive Board, the CDM allows GHG emission reduction projects in developing countries to generate Certified Emission Reductions which can be used to offset mandatory or voluntary emission reduction targets. It however requires a robust monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) to ensure social and environmental integrity of such projects and the emissions reductions thereof. This MRV manual is intended to assist CDM project developers in understanding and managing the MRV requirements and process of their CDM projects in a simple step-by-step manner with the help of real examples and practical tips. While this MRV manual has been developed primarily to assist CDM project developers, it also aspires to be of help for projects participating in other existing and emerging market mechanisms. These may include bilateral mechanisms; voluntary carbon markets; regional, national, and subnational carbon markets; and any of the cooperative approaches and new market mechanism for the post-2020 carbon markets consequent to the Paris Agreement adopted at COP21 in December 2015. As carbon markets in the region evolve beyond CDM, there is a strong need to maintain and further build institutional capacities to ensure growth and enhanced effectivity of carbon markets---and this MRV manual is an effort in that direction.