Certified Emission Reduction

Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) are a type of emissions unit (or carbon credits) issued by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board for emission reductions achieved by CDM projects and verified by a DOE under the rules of the Kyoto Protocol. CERs can be used by Annex 1 countries in order to comply with their emission limitation targets or by operators of installations covered by the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) in order to comply with their obligations to surrender EU Allowances, CERs or Emission Reduction Units (ERUs) for the CO₂ emissions of their installations. CERs can be held by governmental and private entities on electronic accounts with the UN.

CERs can be purchased from the primary market (purchased from original party that makes the reduction) or secondary market (resold from a marketplace). At present, most of the approved CERs are recorded in CDM Registry accounts only. It is only when the CER is actually sitting in an operator's trading account that its value can be monetized through being traded. The UNFCCC's International Transaction Log has already validated and transferred CERs into the accounts of some national climate registries^[1] , although European operators are waiting for the European Commission to facilitate the transfer of their units into the registries of their Member States.

Temporary CERs and Long CERs are special types of CERs issued for forestry projects. They are two ways of accounting for non-permanence in forestry CDM project activities. Temporary CER or tCER is a CER issued for an afforestation or reforestation project activity under the CDM which expires at the end of the commitment period following the one during which it was issued. Long-term CER or lCER is a CER issued for an afforestation or reforestation project activity which expires at the end of its crediting period. ^[2]

See also

• Carbon Emission Reduction Target (CERT)
• Emission Reduction Unit
• Assigned Amount Units
• CDM Gold Standard
• Voluntary Emissions Reduction

References

1. ^ Central cornerstone of Kyoto Protocol’s electronic emissions trading system in place UNFCCC
2. ^ Decisions adopted by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, Report of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol on its first session, held at Montreal from 28 November to 10 December 2005.