Understanding CDM Methodologies - SuSanA

5. Key elements and application of
commonly used methodologies
Aims of Chapter For any CDM project activity it is required to use either a methodology which
was previously approved by the CDM EB or to propose a new methodology
to the CDM EB for consideration and approval. Since a huge variety of
projects has been developed or proposed under the CDM so far, numerous
approved methodologies already exist and various new methodologies are
under evaluation by the Meth Panel/EB. This chapter assesses selected, widely
used approved methodologies. It describes their key features, challenges
regarding their application to CDM projects and resulting changes of the
methodology over time.
Analysis of
Sample of
Methodologies
according to
Frequency of Use.
Small-scale
treated separately
Share in Projects
or Share in CER
Volumes
5.1 Background of methodology selection
As over 90 approved methodologies exist today, an assessment of all of
them would lead to an unwieldy book of several hundred pages, we select
a sample of commonly used methodologies for in-depth assessment. The
selection was done by screening all existing approved methodologies.
Due to the fact that small-scale methodologies have a different regulatory
framework and different basic conditions compared to large-scale
methodologies, this was done separately for large- and small-scale
methodologies. The following criteria were used:
1. The share of the number of projects using an approved methodology in all
projects submitted for public comments; and
2. The share of the total amount of CERs expected until 2012 from all
projects submitted for public comments, using an approved methodology.
5% Threshold The threshold for inclusion of a methodology in the sample was set at 5% 219 .
8 large-scale and
5 small-scale
Methodologies
assessed
By applying the described selection criteria, 8 large-scale and 5 small-scale
methodologies were selected. Table 6 shows the selected methodologies
including the title, version, number of related projects and amount of
expected CERs till 2012.
219
The UNEP RISØ CDM project pipeline available at www.cdmpipeline.org was used for this calculation (cutoff-date
27/08/2007). Due to the fact that some projects involve more than one approved methodology, the
number of projects and the amount of expected CERs till 2012 cannot always be clearly allocated to one
methodology. Therefore double counting of these criteria was unavoidable.
41