Climate Change and Sustainable Development
India, Kenya and Nigeria (2003, 2004, 2006)

Overview

The Pembina Institute is helping to expand access to clean, reliable energy in developing countries by improving access to innovative financing for renewable energy projects such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The CDM is a carbon financing tool introduced under the Kyoto Protocol that helps industrialized countries meet their emission reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol by investing in renewable energy and other emission reduction projects in developing countries.

From the onset of the CDM, limited awareness and training have acted as significant barriers to project developers including small and medium enterprises, and community and non-governmental organizations. This has preventing project developers from leveraging carbon financing to support local activities that may contribute to sustainable development.

In 2003, the Pembina Institute launched the CDM Small Projects Facility (SPF) in India — a capacity-building project designed to assist small-scale project developers gain access to innovative financing for sustainable energy projects. CDM practitioners and trainers provide technical training and support to project developers to enable them to gain first-hand experience in developing CDM projects. The Pembina Institute has since successfully implemented similar facilities in Kenya (2004) and Nigeria (2006).

Innovative sources of financing like the CDM provide opportunities for communities and entrepreneurs in developing countries to put in place projects and technologies that meet their energy needs, increase their ability to adapt to climate change and avoid dangerous greenhouse gas emissions.

Objectives

The objectives of the SPF were to:

• promote small community-based renewable energy and other greenhouse gas reduction projects in the host countries that qualify to use the CDM simplified approval process

• increase CDM project development and investment opportunities

• support communities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and other potential project developers in the host countries to prepare project documents for small-scale CDM projects

• link Canadian CDM investors and purchasers of carbon credits with viable CDM projects in host countries.

In line with these objectives, the facility built the capacity of the local partners, project developers and interns to participate in CDM activities by developing up to six small-scale CDM projects in each country.

Outcomes

Each facility built the capacity of participating project developers through a series of workshops, training sessions and ongoing support to

• identify potential CDM projects

• develop emissions baseline and monitoring plans

• complete a financial analysis of each project with CDM financing

• prepare the CDM Project Design Document (PDD) required to complete the CDM approval process

• prepare Project Information Notes (PINs) to assist in marketing the projects to potential investors

• identify opportunities to secure carbon financing.

The experiences of the participants in India (2003), Kenya (2004) and Nigeria (2006) demonstrate that the facilities helped project developers overcome information and capacity barriers that had limited their use of the CDM to finance renewable energy projects that contribute to sustainable development.

A range of projects were developed through the SPF, from irrigation treadle pumps in India to biogas cogeneration projects in Kenya and Nigeria. View the summaries of the projects developed through the facilities in India, Kenya and Nigeria.

Next Steps

We are currently designing a Renewable Energy SPF that will expand our work with small-scale project developers in Africa. The facility will increase small-scale entrepreneurs' project development skills and ability to leverage conventional and carbon financing for renewable energy projects.

For more information, contact

Paul Cobb

• Community Project Analyst
• Email: paulc(at)pembina.org
  Tel: 819-483-6288 Ext 23