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3.4 Duration of the project activity/ crediting
period
Project participants should state the duration of the project activity in section C.1 and their choice of
crediting period in section C.2 of the PDD.
In section C.1, the starting date of a CDM project activity and expected operation lifetime of the
project activity are to be stated. The starting date of a CDM project activity is defined as the date on
which the implementation or construction or real action of a project activity begins. It has always
been the EB’s view that the start date of a CDM project activity is the earliest of the dates at which the
implementation or construction or real action of the project activity begins [EB33, para. 76]. Project
participants should also state the expected operational lifetime of the project activity in years and
months.
In section C.2, project participants state their choice regarding the crediting period. The crediting
period for a CDM project activity is the period for which reductions from the baseline are verified and
certified by a DOE for the purpose of issuance of certified emission reductions (CERs).
The project participants may choose between two options for the length of a crediting period:
(a) Fixed crediting period
The length and starting date of the period is determined once for a project activity with no
possibility of renewal or extension once the project activity has been registered. The length of
the period can be a maximum of 10 years for a proposed CDM project activity.
(b) Renewable crediting period
A single crediting period may be of a maximum of 7 years. The crediting period may be
renewed at most two times (maximum 21 years), provided that, for each renewal, a DOE
determines that the original project baseline is still valid or has been updated taking account
of new data, where applicable, and informs the EB accordingly.
Project participants should note the following points regarding crediting period:
(a) A crediting period shall not extend beyond the operational lifetime of the project activity.
(b) The starting date of a CDM project activity does not need to correspond to the starting date of
the crediting period for this project activity.
(c) The starting date and length of the first crediting period has to be determined before
registration. The crediting period may only start after the date of registration of the proposed
activity as a CDM project activity, except when requesting for “retroactive crediting” (See Box
3-1 in next page).
(d) Be sure to state the dates in “DD/MM/YYYY” format, which means that if the date is “1 June
2006”, it should be written as “01/06/2006”
The crediting period of a project activity cannot commence prior to the date of registration. The date
listed in the PDD is therefore an indicative starting date and it will be updated by the secretariat as
the date of registration, if the listed date is prior to the date of registration. This update will not affect
the specified length of the crediting period nor does this impact the rights of project participants to
subsequently request a change of the starting date of the crediting period [EB41, Annex 12].
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