Verification of outcomes from carbon market under the clean development mechanism (CDM) projects in landfills

Abstract

This paper addresses the issue of verifying the outcomes of using the Clean Development Mechanism – CDM – in landfills. Our research focuses on the São Paulo Metropolitan Area and outlines six CDM projects: Bandeirantes, São João, Caieiras, Itapevi, Pedreira, and Lara. Twenty-three indicators are proposed, organized into two dimensions: social and environmental. The process of constructing indicators was participatory. The Delphi technique was then applied leading to its validation by experts. The dimensions were subdivided into five topics: participation, emphasizing the participation of associations and cooperatives surrounding landfills; the interface between agents involved, each with different interests; benefits, focusing on the implementation of CDM in the solid waste sector (especially waste pickers' cooperatives and technology transfer); environmental quality monitoring, highlighting the issue of odor; and gas emissions monitoring related to the efficiency of the biogas capture system. The aforementioned results corroborate the importance of the indicators developed based on interdisciplinary and multi-agent approaches which take into account the different stakeholders.