Sustainability Analysis
A key issue affiliated to the climate change agenda, if not shaping it in the first place, is the promotion of sustainable development. Emissions reduction projects, based on the flexible mechanisms introduced through the Kyoto Protocol, are the ultimate result of the global political process that started at the "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and before that with the concept of sustainable development as introduced in the Brundtland Report.
CVDTC offers analyses of project sustainability with or without relation to CDM, JI or VER markets, and offers to produce truthful and convincing sustainability arguments for investors, buyers and sellers of carbon market related projects and products. Equally, CVDTC is in a position to also evaluate the sustainability effect of polities that are drafted in response to the global climate change agenda (see "Policy Analysis").
For CDM and JI projects it is required that host countries ensure that they support the national sustainability policies. However, the national approval procedures are not always seen as a sufficient guardian of sustainability criteria defined by investors or buyers of carbon credits. On the other hand CDM projects have to perform local stakeholder consultations and, depending on the particular type of project, other sustainability supporting analyses (e.g. to comply with criteria issued by the World Commission of Dams), which means that CVDTC’s team of experts on a regular basis and as an integrated part of the key activity of the company performs sustainability analysis. Recently, CVDTC has also taken on assignments to assure and monitor that CDM projects in their portfolios comply with United Nations’ Global Compact in their Emissions Reduction Purchase Agreements – a voluntary standard that establishes a set of general guidelines for the sustainable conduct of commercial activities.