International successes in clean development mechanism implementation : lessons for South Africa

Abstract

The pace at which South Africa is implementing Clean Development Mechanism projects has been regarded as slow, below the country’s potential and lagging other developing countries. Factors discouraging implementation of CDM projects in South Africa are universal and not just unique to South Africa. China, India and Brazil were evaluated for the purpose of this research and were found to be implementing very similar interventions to address these factors. Further to this, factors that are regarded as success factors in the implementation of CDM were also found to be similar across these countries. There were three objectives that the research sought to address. The first objective was to establish if documented factors discouraging CDM in South Africa are unique to South Africa or also applicable to other countries. The second objective was to establish the interventions these countries implement in addressing factors discouraging CDM as well as success factors that encouraged CDM in the above mentioned countries. The third objective was to develop a framework with lessons that can be transferred and applied to the South African environment. An interpretive methodology was used in analysing data collected from 13 semistructured interviews, conducted with international and local CDM experts. The research further sought to identify recurring themes across South Africa, China, India and Brazil. The outcome of the research was aimed in highlighting a framework of lessons for South Africa and recommendation on how South Africa can implement such lessons to accelerate CDM implementation.