Move prompts call for European ban, as Clean Development Mechanism also adopts new validation procedures and rules for HFC credits. The UN has temporarily suspended carbon credits generated by coal power projects from its carbon offset scheme in a move that could put added pressure on the EU to follow suit.

At a meeting ahead of this week's Durban climate conference, the executive board of the UN's Clean Development Mechanism also took steps to improve the verification of emission reduction projects designed to speed up the registration process, and adopted a new method of accrediting controversial HFC-23 projects that reduce emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas. The board said in a statement that the decision to suspend coal projects from the UN carbon offset scheme was taken because the rules used to calculate emission reductions had resulted in the creation of artificial carbon credits.

Currently, the CDM rules allow coal plants to earn tradable emissions credits for improvements in power plant efficiency. However, these improvements have proved difficult to monitor and verify, and the board has now tasked its Methodologies Panel with coming up with revised rules for clean coal projects ahead of its next meeting early in 2012. Green campaigners welcomed the acknowledgment that the regulations need to be addressed, but argued that coal power plants have no place in a scheme originally designed to help poorer countries invest in sustainable infrastructure and enable rich countries to cut their emissions.

Anja Kollmuss of CDM Watch said that "We welcome the suspension of the methodology. However, it is not feasible to revise the methodology to address the flaws and guarantee real emissions reductions."

Along with WWF, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, CDM Watch wrote an open letter to European environment ministers over the weekend calling on them to use the Durban summit to exclude coal projects from the CDM and the EU's emissions trading scheme.

The signatories warned that, without action, billions of euros could be spent on projects that undermine climate targets, as well as damage human health and the environment. CDM Watch estimates that the six plants registered under the CDM could receive about 90 million credits under the current rules.

(Sourced from Business Green)