A Decision Support Approach for the Sustainable Transfer of Energy Technologies under the Kyoto Protocol

Abstract

Theoretically, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was introduced in the Kyoto Protocol at COP-3 in December 1997 and has officially been operational since the year 2000, in order to assist the technology transfer of sustainable energy technologies from developed to developing countries so as to support the sustainable development of the host countries. Under the CDM, sustainable development is considered a country context-specific aspect which differs across countries. Actual CDM practice has shown that projects are largely initiated by the demand for relatively lowcost certified emission reductions, leading to a series of ad-hoc projects, rather than serving the overall host countries’ sustainable development needs and priorities. Indeed, it remains to be seen how important the mechanism can be in terms of stimulating the sustainable transfer of energy technologies to developing countries. This study, a part of which is based on research conducted within the FP6 ENTTRANS project, aims to present a collective and transparent approach towards the sustainable technology transfer through the CDM, based on the active involvement of the related stakeholders in five developing countries, namely China, Chile, Israel, Kenya and Thailand. Specifically, the adopted approach uses an existing Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method, giving emphasis on the formulation of the process so as to be relatively straightforward to incorporate direct stakeholders’ preferences. The approach aims to facilitate decision makers to put on the map the most suitable sustainable energy technologies to transfer to these specific developing countries and support these host countries’ DNAs-Designated National Authorities in building the capacity to explore CDM projects contribution to the related sustainable development needs and priorities.