New York: A mechanism under the United Nations-backed Kyoto Protocol has approved a clean energy project in Andhra Pradesh state of India, reaching a milestone of approving 1,000 clean energy projects.

The Indian project is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 34,000 tonnes annually, according to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

To get registered with the Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and then earn Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits, projects must pass a rigorous process of approval and independent third-party monitoring designed to ensure that emission reductions claimed by a project are real, verifiable and additional to what would have taken place without the project.

The Kyoto Protocol mechanism allows industrialised countries to generate credits through investment in emission reduction projects in developing countries.

CDM Executive Board Chairman Rajesh Kumar Sethi, who signed off on the project at a joint coordination workshop at Bonn in Germany, noted that with 1,000 projects in 49 countries in just two and a half years, the mechanism has shown its potential.

"At the same time, it's clear that there is still much greater potential that can be realised, while respecting the imperative of ensuring environmental integrity and making the mechanism as simple as possible," Sethi said.

The Bonn workshop brought together about 240 representatives of CDM regulatory implementers and national stakeholders who discussed, among other things, registration of CDM projects and issuance of CERs, emissions baseline setting and monitoring methodologies, and accreditation of third-party certifiers.

Hailing the CDM as one of the Kyoto Protocol's greatest successes, the UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said that it provided developed countries with a degree of flexibility in how they meet their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.
—iGovernment Bureau