ESTABLISHMENT OF CDM PROJECT ADDITIONALITY THROUGH ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Carbon finance is the investment in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction projects in developing countries and countries with economies in transition within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) or Joint Implementation (JI) and with creation of financial instruments, i.e., carbon credits, which are tradable in carbon market. The additional revenue generated from carbon credits will increase the bankability of projects by reducing the risks of commercial lending or grant finance. Meantime, it has also demonstrated numerous opportunities for collaborating across sectors, and has served as a catalyst in bringing climate issues to bear in projects relating to rural electrification, renewable energy, energy efficiency, urban infrastructure, waste management, pollution abatement, forestry, and water resource management. Establishing additionality is essential for successful CDM project development. One of the key steps is the investment analysis. As guided by UNFCCC, financial indicators such as IRR, NPV, DSCR etc are most commonly used in both Option II & Option III. However, economic indicator such as Economic Internal Rate of Return(EIRR) are often overlooked in Option III even it might be more suitable for the project. This could be due to the difficulties in economic analysis. Although Asian Development Bank(ADB) has given guidelines in evaluating EIRR, there are still large amount of works have to be carried out in estimating the economic, financial, social and environmental benefits in the host country. This paper will present a case study of a CDM development of a 18 MW hydro power plant with carbon finance option in central Vietnam. The estimation of respective factors in EIRR, such as Willingness to Pay(WTP), shadow price etc, will be addressed with the adjustment to Vietnam local provincial factors. The significance of carbon finance to Vietnam renewable energy development will also be addressed.