How additional is the Clean Development Mechanism?

While this study provides important insights to improve the CDM up to 2020, the approach taken in this study could also be applied more generally both to assess the environmental integrity of other compliance offset mechanisms, as well as to avoid flaws in the design of new mechanisms being used or established for compliance. Many of the shortcomings identified in this study are inherent to crediting mechanisms in general, not least the considerable uncertainty involved in the assessment of additionality and the information asymmetry between project developers and regulators.