Registration fee

A registration fee is payable by project proponents in order to have a project considered for registration (EB 5, paragraph 23).

This fee is an upfront payment of the estimated amount due for the share of proceeds for administration for the first year of the project. The amount paid as a registration fee is deducted from the share of proceeds for administration that is due at the time of the issuance of the first year's certified emission reductions (CERs). This was decided at EB 6:

The registration fee paid will be deducted from the share of proceeds for administration due at issuance of CERs (EB 6, Annex 5)

This was clarified further in the Guidance related to the registration fee for proposed A/R clean development mechanism project activities:

The registration fee shall be deducted from the share of proceeds for administrative expenses. In effect, the registration fee is an advance payment of the SOP-Admin for the net GHG removals by sinks achieved during the first year (EB 36, Annex 21, paragraph 6).

The Guidance related to the registration fee for proposed A/R clean development mechanism project activities was adopted at EB 36 Annex 21.

How much is the registration fee?

The registration fee for afforestation and reforestation (A/R) projects is based on the following:

1. If the selected approach for addressing non-permanence is tCERs, the SOP-Admin is based on on the difference between the tCERs for which issuance is requested for a given verification period and the highest tCERs previously issued;
2. If the selected approach for addressing non-permanence is lCERs, the SOP-Admin is based on difference between the lCERs for which issuance is requested for a given verification period added to the sum of all previous issuances and reversals, and the highest among the sums of the issuances and reversals since start of the project calculated for each previous verification period. All reversals mentioned above are negative numbers (EB 36, Annex 21, paragraph 2).

If the outcome of the calculations above is a positive number, then the registration fee is calculated using the following scale:

1. USD 0.10 per expected average annual net GHG removals by sinks for the first 15,000 t CO2 e;
2. USD 0.20 per expected average annual net GHG removals by sinks for any amount in excess of 15,000 t CO2 e (EB 36, Annex 21, paragraph 3).

The fee that is actually payable is based on an average of the estimated annual quantities of CERs that will be generated over the crediting period, as set out in the PDD:

The registration fee shall be calculated based on the expected average annual net GHG removals by sinks for the project activity over its crediting period (EB 23, Annex 35, paragraph 3).

 The Executive Board has issued some qualifications to the above:

The maximum registration fee payable is capped at USD 350,000 (EB 36, Annex 21, paragraph 4).

No registration fee has to be paid for CDM A/R project activities with expected average annual net GHG removals by sinks over the crediting period below 15,000 t CO2-equivalent (EB 23, Annex 35, paragraph 5).

Reimbursement of the registration fee

The Executive Board had initially stated that that the registration fee would be non-reimbursable (EB 5, paragraph 23). However, it has since clarified that:

If an activity is not registered, any registration fee above USD 30,000 shall be reimbursed (EB 36, Annex 21, paragraph 6).

The Executive Board had also initially stated that, in the case of voluntarily withdrawal, the registration fee is entirely non-refundable:

The Board further clarified that in cases where project activities have been withdrawn voluntarily by the project participants prior to registration the registration fee is non-refundable and that in the case of resubmission a new registration fee will have to be paid (EB 31, paragraph 81).

However, it has since specified that the full registration fee will be reimbursed if a DOE (or a project participant via a DOE) asks that a request for registration be withdrawn prior to its publication:

In cases where a DOE, or a project participant via a DOE, requests that a request for registration be withdrawn prior to the publication of this request the full amount of the registration fee will be
reimbursed (EB 41, paragraph 67).

Exemption for least-developed countries

At its 3rd meeting, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP) decided to exempt least developed countries from paying the registration fee and share of proceeds at issuance:

The Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol ...

Decides to abolish the payment of the registration fee and share of proceeds at issuance for clean development mechanism project activities hosted in least developed countries (2/CMP.3, paragraph 31).

In response to this decision, the Executive Board has clarified that:

No registration fee and share of proceeds at issuance have to be paid for CDM project activities hosted in least developed countries. The exemption from these payments is determined at the date of registration of the project activity. In the event a country which hosts a project activity is categorized as a least developed countries after the date of registration, no share of proceeds is to be paid at any subsequent issuance (EB 37, Annex 20, paragraph 5).