CDM projects and their impact on sustainable development: a case study from Kenya

Abstract

This paper documents the Kyoto Protocol’s clean development mechanism’s (CDM) contribution to sustainable development in Kenya. The aim of this research is to determine how much the CDM contributes to sustainable development in Kenya. Specifically, the objective of the paper is to assess the relationship between CDM project characteristics and their contribution to sustainable development in the country. To assess how much CDM contribution there is, the sustainable development indicators involving four parameters (environmental, social, economic and technology) were used. These criteria were informed by Multi-Attributive Assessment model utilizing data and information from registered CDM project design documents (PDDs) from the country. The key findings were that none of the 14 CDM projects had an average score of one (1), which would be the ideal score if a CDM project contributed to all the sustainable indicators used in the evaluation. The highest scoring project was the Nairobi River Basin Biogas CDM Project, the only biogas project in Kenya, with a score of 0.8 and represents 7% of the projects. About half of the CDM projects got a score of 0.6, which is just slightly above the average.