Perspectives on the institutional needs of joint implementation projects for China, Egypt, India, Mexico, and Thailand

One avenue for reducing the net emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) under the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) is the joint implementation (JI) of policies and projects to the Convention. Although debate on the practical aspects of JI projects is relatively young, it already includes issues concerning the ability of governments to accept JI projects as well as the project participants` capacity to monitor, evaluate, and verify the financial and GHG benefits. The focus of this paper is an in-depth, country-by-country analysis of current and conceivable institutions in potential host countries. To understand these concerns better, in August 1994 the authors asked colleagues in five developing countries to evaluate their countries` institutional capacity for JI projects. Their perspectives are presented here as individual country case studies. The five countries--Mexico, Egypt, Thailand, India, and China--were chosen because each has significant potential for JI projects.