INVESTIGATING INSTITUTIONAL, POLICY AND PROJECT FINANCING BARRIERS IMPEDING CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM (CDM) IMPLEMENTATION IN KENYA

Abstract

The Clean development mechanism (CDM) is a major sustainable development tool established by the Kyoto Protocol under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), (Article 12, Kyoto Protocol).It promises developed countries certified emission reductions (CERs) and sustainable development benefits to participating developing member countries. The CDM has experienced exponential growth over the past three years. Asia has the largest share with 45% of CERs supplied, followed by India with 31 % and China 25% of global CERs supplied (Point carbon, 2005). Africa has a paltry 2% of the global carbon volume supplied implying that the proven potential of this financing mechanism is yet to be harnessed in this country and region.This study will review past CDM activity in Kenya, outline reasons for failure of these projects and in the process expose key barriers in CDM implementation in Kenya. A road map for the successful implementation of CDM will be proposed as recommendations. Both primary and secondary data will be used to collect data for this study. Primary data will be collected by using semi-structured questionnaires. Personal interviews will supplement the questionnaires. Secondary data collection will entail the reviewing and content analysis of both theoretical and empirical literature. Literature review will focus on national, regional and international publications with reference to clean development mechanism.Data analysis of categories, themes and patterns will be identified based on the objectives of the study. The out put data will be used to propose recommendations and subsequent road pap for successful CDM implementation in Kenya.