avoided deforestation

The Kyoto Protocol, whose future or obituary is under construction in Bali, set the first framework for a global carbon market with the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in 1997 (although it did not actually come into operation until the Protocol came into force in 2005). Critics of the CDM are not hard to find, but the substance of their objections varies enormously. They range from NGOs like the International Rivers Network which says it opens the door to huge scams, to multi-million dollar companies which want to make CDM work but say it has been hobbled and risks losing credibility altogether.