Extending the clean development mechanism to building projects

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a global scheme intended to provide a flexible way to comply with carbon emissions reduction commitments through emissions trading. In this scheme, countries can purchase certified emission reduction (CER) credits, each equivalent to one tonne of avoided emissions, to meet part of their emission reduction commitments. The CER credits are generated from emission reduction activities that are undertaken in developing countries. Although the CDM has benefited several sectors, the building sector hitherto accounts for a meagre proportion of the globally registered CDM initiatives. However, recent research suggests that there is potential in using the CDM concept to address carbon emissions associated with buildings. Further to this suggestion, this paper presents a demonstration of how the CDM concept could be applied to building projects in a developing country, Uganda. A two-bedroom residential house was considered as the unit of analysis and carbon emissions associated with constructing its walls were derived, considering materials, plant, and workforce used. Two options for the house were considered: a baseline (i.e. constructed using typical materials, plant, and labour) and green alternative (i.e. constructed using provisions to reduce carbon emissions). The difference in carbon emissions in the two options was found to constitute a basis for a CDM whose structure is presented and discussed in this paper. Considering a bottom-up projection regarding construction of residential houses in Uganda, the findings show that using the CDM concept, carbon emissions reduction of over 200 ktCO2 could be achieved in a period of 10 years. These figures were found comparable with prevailing CDM initiatives which are not associated with buildings. The overall findings indicated that extending the CDM concept to building projects is plausible and could promote market-based mechanisms of enhancing sustainable construction.