ABSTRACT
There is little doubt that environmental issues today have moved up the agenda from soft policy matters to being taken seriously as threats to human security and sustainable development. Environmental challenges are now firmly rooted in the multilevel system and debates. This relates particularly to the issues of global climate change and the respective impacts, which go far beyond the scope of nation-states and local territories. Consequently, climate change is a matter of global concern, and the most burning question pervading debates is how the various challenges are to be tackled. In this respect, traditional instruments and mechanisms that are currently applied to respond to environmental problems appear insufficient, given the unprecedented scale and scope of climate change. New mechanisms are therefore being sought that will provide both innovative and global solutions. The main argument defended in the following holds that the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol constitutes such a novel approach to climate change mitigation. The assessment of this potential requires an analytical understanding and conceptual embedding of the CDM. The central purpose of this chapter is to set the context and to engage in analytical and conceptual discussions of the CDM.
