Investigating the role of the clean development mechanism within the global green energy market: The case of wind energy

The world driven by the concern for climate change and by growing prices for fossil fuels is trying to make a more drastic shift towards renewable energy sources (RES). The Kyoto protocol mechanisms are supposed to assist this process. The scope of this paper is to analyze the so far gained experience by the implementation of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), in order to investigate its role in the formation of green energy markets. The analysis focuses on the particular case of wind energy as it is one of the most promising and fast developing technologies for RES exploitation. A major objective is to estimate the relative importance of wind energy within the whole package of CDM projects, as well as to identify the influence of CDM activities on the development of the global green energy market.