CARBON CREDITS FOR SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA - lumes

5. DISCUSSION5.1 SUSTAINABILITY CONTEXT OF CARBON FINANCEThe recent development in a number of GHG emission reduction approacheshas inevitably led to a debate around several issues, including additionality ofreductions, fairness and inequality. Contribution of GHG emission reduction projectbasedactivities to sustainable development is at the centre of debate. This sectionturns from explaining the undermining principles of carbon finance mechanism anddescribing critical features of emission reduction projects in Sub-Saharan Africa todiscussion on the issue of sustainability in relation to market mechanisms.In the context of climate change regime, the Kyoto Protocol does not specifywhat ‘sustainable development’ stands for. Moreover, the differences between Southand North interests in relation to the development and growth translate intocontrasting views on the goals and objectives of the global climate regime. Thishinders the progress in creating an all-inclusive definition of sustainability that can bebroadly agreed upon both on macro- and micro-level of the regime. In this way twoprevailing interpretations of sustainable development based on market and regulationcooperatively converge within the climate debate. When it comes to the market-basedmechanisms of climate regime there is no commonly accepted definition forsustainability on specific project level either. The argument for not precisely defining“sustainable development” stems from the fact that it is individual host countries’prerogative to assess whether proposed CDM project meets national SD objectives, aswell as to develop nationally appropriate CDM approval procedures with regards tosustainable development. Thus, each country can choose own specific criteria forsustainable development. This way of interpretation can be explained by the fact thatthe concept originated from Brundtland report cannot be transferred directly to apractical level, as well as by the lack of clarity about the underlying values andperspectives of the notion of SD when applied to the climate change regime (Grist,2008). Nevertheless, it is implied that if the project contributes to sustainabledevelopment on a micro-level, it will have a marginal effect on sustainabledevelopment at a macro-level in accordance with the criteria set (Olhoff et al,undated). However, on a mechanism’s level several authors identify an inevitabletrade-off between cheap emission reductions and sustainable development as one ofthe main problems with the CDM (Ellis et al., 2007; Olsen 2007; Olsen and Fenhann,2008; Pearson, 2007; Sutter and Parreño, 2007; Schneider, 2007). This has itsimplications for defining sustainable development within the VCM, as it to a greatextent follows the practices set by CDM.Significantly less attention has been paid to the VCM contribution tosustainable development if compared to the research on CDM. Yet VCM-basedprojects perceived level of integrity includes GHG emission reductions, reducedadverse environmental impacts, and socio-economic benefits delivered to localcommunities and host countries. This perception is mainly based on assumption that37