Human Rights and the Clean Development Mechanism

Lessons learnt from three case studies

  • News 29.03.2017

The article "Human rights and the clean development mechanism: lessons learned from three case studies" analyses the human rights implications of projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). While the CDM is likely to expire in the near future, the experience gained should be used for the new mechanism to be established under the 2015 Paris Agreement. The authors argue that the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights should be applied. Based on the experience drawn from three case studies (two hydro power projects in Barro Blanco, Panama, and Bujagali, Uganda, and one geothermal energy project in Olkaria, Kenya), the article shows that CDM projects, while in formal compliance with CDM rules, can lead to a number of human rights infringements. The authors include a number of recommendations on how to achieve a greater recognition of human rights in the news mechanism under the Paris Agreement.

The article "Human rights and the clean development mechanism: lessons learned from three case studies" by Wolfgang Obergassel, Lauri Peterson, Florian Mersmann, Jeanette Schade, Jane Alice Hofbauer and Monika Mayrhofer was published in the Journal of Human Rights and the Environment and is available online.


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