The
Climate Change Centre of Development Alternatives organised a one-day
seminar on Baselines at India International Centre on 18th January 2001.
The speaker was Dr. Axel Michaelowa, an expert on Baselines, from the
Hamburg Institute of International Economics. The participants, other than
those from Development Alternatives, were from organisations such as TERI,
Louis-Berger Group, USAID, and Winrock International. It was an
interactive seminar with a lot of active participation from all those
present.
The presentation made by Dr. Michaelowa was in 4 distinct parts. In the
first part, a brief account was given of the proceedings and outcome of
COP 6 held at the Hague. In the second part, some open issues concerning
CDM and baselines were discussed. In the third part, the concept of
additionality and its implications was presented, and in the fourth and
last part, a template for baseline development with regard to the Indian
context was presented.
In the first part Dr. Michaelowa listed out the negotiation issues at COP
6 and cited the Sinks Issue as the main reason for the breakdown of talks
at COP 6. He concluded the first part of the presentation by stating that
in the future, scientific indicators for climate change will become even
more compelling, and that mechanisms will be a part of any climate change
regime.
In the second part, issues relating to CDM and baseline development were
discussed. The main points of discussion were the CDM project cycle, the
applicability and effectiveness of baselines, and various approaches for
computing baselines. In this part, he also mentioned the views of broad
interest groups such as the private sector, the various governments, and
NGOs. He also mentioned that baselines could be project-specific or
observing benchmarks, depending on the nature of the project.
In the third part, Dr. Michaelowa discussed the concept of additionality
as well as approaches for determination of investment additionality. He
spoke on the CDM rules on additionality and on the criteria for investment
additionality.
In the fourth and last part, a template for baseline development with
regard to the Indian context was discussed. Various templates were
presented, each depending on the type of the project involved. To wrap up
the seminar, Abhijit Chatterjee of Development Alternatives presented a
hypothetical case study, and an interactive session with all the
participants followed.
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