Procedures for review of erroneous inclusion of a CPA

The Procedures for Registration of a Programme of Activities as a Single CDM Project Activity and Issuance of Certified Emission Reductions for a Programme of Activities (Version 4.1) provide for the possibility to request a review of the inclusion of a CPA into a registered PoA (EB 55, Annex 38, paragraph 26). Procedures for Review of Erroneous Inclusion of a CPA, detail the procedures for requesting a review and the conduct of such a review. These Procedures provide that:

If a Designated National Authority (DNA) of a Party involved in the PoA or a Board member identifies information that may disqualify a CPA from inclusion in the PoA or renewal of its crediting period the Secretary of the Board shall be notified, by means of a request for review form (F-CDM-CPAR) within one year after the inclusion of CPA into a registered PoA or renewal of the crediting period of the CPA, or within six (6) months after the first issuance of CERs for that CPA, whichever is the latter (EB 55, Annex 37, paragraph 5).

The Executive Board, on receiving a request for review, can either decide to initiate a review of the inclusion of the CPA or exclude the CPA from the PoA with immediate effect if it determines that the CPA was erroneously included in the PoA. If the Executive Board decides to initiate a review, such a review must be conducted by a DOE that did not perform the validation, registration, inclusion or verification functions with regard to the PoA in question, through assessment of a random sample of 10% of all CPAs included. The assessment must be reported to the Executive Board within 8 weeks (EB 55, Annex 37, paragraphs 9-10).

The DOE review report is then examined by an assessment team formed by the Executive Board, who makes a recommendation to the Board within two weeks, containing a finding as to whether any CPAs have been erroneously included in the PoA. The Board then decides whether to exclude any of the CPAs from the PoA, and whether to extend its review of the inclusion of CPAs to the PoA. If it is determined that the CPA was erroneously included into the PoA, the Board may decide to exclude it from the PoA (EB 55, Annex 37, paragraph 11-14).

The consequences of exclusion of CPAs are:

(a) The CPA that has been excluded shall not be re-included again in that or any other PoA, or qualify as a CDM project activity;

(b) The DOE that included the CPA, shall acquire and transfer, within 30 days of the exclusion of the CPA, an amount of reduced tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent to the amount of CERs issued for the CPA as a result of the CPA having been included, to a cancellation account maintained in the CDM registry by the Board. The period covered shall be from the date of the erroneous inclusion of the CPA into the PoA to the date of exclusion of the CPA from the PoA.

The consequences of extension of review are:

(a) The further inclusion of new CPAs and issuance of CERs to that PoA shall be put on hold;

(b) A further sample of 15% of included CPAs shall be reviewed in accordance with the modalities contained in paragraphs 10 to 13;

(c) If this second review also leads to the exclusion of further CPAs, the Executive Board may decide to extend the review to all included CPAs.

Note: Further details are set out in the Procedures For Review of Erroneous Inclusion of CPA and can be accessed here (version 2) (EB 55, Annex 37).