Cooking up New Mystery Mechanisms (NMM)
30 August 2012
Since the decision to establish a new market mechanism (NMM) and an international framework for new bilateral or regional market mechanisms at COP17 in Durban, ECO hasn’t noticed much progress. None of the details have been worked out and even insiders are unclear about what new mechanisms could look like and what the role of the so-called “common framework” should be. Many issues remain in mystery, such as whether there should be centralised governance or prevailing national rules, how to address double counting and how these new mechanisms will actually fit into the wider climate negotiations when there is insufficient political will for ambitious emission reduction commitments.
For a potion from the indigestion of many divergent views, the AWG-LCA chair needs to get his wand out at today’s workshop on new market-based mechanisms. ECO restates several essential ingredients for an infatuating recipe:
safeguards against double counting of efforts
as many as you can
real, measurable, verifiable and additional emissions reductions
“tonnes” of it
centralized governance
one piece
net atmospheric and sustainable development benefits
all you can get
However, even if the Bangkok talks can cook up something, there is no feast without getting ourselves hungry with sufficient political will for ambitious emissions reduction commitments.