The Lebanese member of Interleges, Salim El Meouchi, and Chadia El Meouchi, have spoken at the first conference on Clean Development Mechanisms in Saudi Arabia. The conference was chaired by Dr. Mohammad Al Sabban, and organised by the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a project-based flexible mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. It is designed to assist developing countries in achieving sustainable development and to make it easier and cheaper for industrialised countries to meet their greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets agreed to under the Protocol. Under the CDM, an industrialised country with a GHG reduction target can invest in a project in a developing country and claim credit for the emissions that the project achieves. 

The conference was a forum for the valuable exchange of information and ideas for CDM projects that will help reduce GHG concentrations. The Gulf region has great potential for projects of this nature, such as Carbon Capture and Storage, and the CDM opens a whole new world of profits for lawyers, amongst others.

Salim and Chadia spoke in the ‘Emissions Reduction Purchase Agreements (ERPAS) Legal Aspects, CDM Project Tools, Project Finance, Kyoto Compatibility with Islamic Finance’ section of the conference. Please click here to see their presentations on the Legal aspects of ERPAS (by Chadia El Meouchi) and Kyoto compatibility with Islamic Finance (by Salim El Meouchi). Please also see www.cdm-saudiconference.com for more information on the conference.