The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the first multilateral environmental agreement of global reach to establish a market-based mechanism allowing state parties to comply in part with their treaty obligations by investing in mitigation projects in developing countries. Since this mechanism—the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)—will rely on international, national, and private-sector institutions to facilitate foreign investment and sustainable development and since these mitigation projects could significantly impact many stakeholders, the CDM poses novel questions of how stakeholders can adequately participate in its decisionmaking processes
This chapter first provides an overview of the main actors who will supervise, develop, or oversee CDM projects, and who in turn bear some responsibility under the rules for facilitating public participation. Next, the chapter reviews the CDM rules created under the Marrakech Accords that provide for access to informa-tion and public participation in decision-making. These sections also identify gaps in the current rules and include some of the recommendations that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have made to fill these gaps. Finally, the chapter discusses the limited opportunities for access to justice that presently exist under the rules and identifies those additional procedures that may or should be formally adopted soon.