A synthetic indicator to evaluate the contribution of clean development mechanism projects for Latin American sustainable development

Abstract

If one were to assign responsibilities of current climate change, one of the most important challenges of the 21st century, it probably does not correspond to the Latin American countries, which are most vulnerable to the effects of greenhouse gas emission (GHG). One of the opportunities to meet the challenge of climate change is already being implemented, because the so-called rich countries are developing environmentally sustainable projects in Latin America to account for their own GHG reductions generated in the region of developing countries who ratified the Kyoto Protocol. Therefore, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a flexibility mechanism established by Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol, constitutes a real opportunity for developing countries to achieve the benefits of the emerging carbon market. Not everything can be considered a benefit to the host countries of these CDM projects as there is a risk that they are better adapted to the economic interests of the industrialized country than the host country. This paper proposes the creation of a synthetic indicator to quantitatively measure and summarize the contribution of CDM projects on complex phenomenon such as sustainable development in a particular region. It is expected that the Sustainable Development Index of Project (SDIP) serves as a monitoring mechanism for economic, environmental, and social impacts, and supports decision-making for the validation of a CDM project. The simplification suggested by the SDIP is important because it can provide an easily identifiable numerical value which represents the CDM project's viability. Moreover, the degree of standardization of the proposed index in relation to CDM projects evaluated allows for comparison, so those projects with the highest rates are the projects selected for implementation in the host regions. © 2012 WIT Press.