In what appears to be the first deal struck under the Kyoto treaty’s Clean Development Mechanism, the Netherlands has signed a contract with the World Bank providing $40 million for clean energy projects in developing countries in exchange for carbon dioxide reduction credits. The Kyoto treaty sets target limits on the emission of the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming, and the Clean Development Mechanism allows states to buy credits toward their own targets by helping fund clean energy programs elsewhere. The three-year contract between the Dutch government and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation will give the Netherlands 10 megatons of credit towards its emissions limit of 250 megatons; the IFC, meanwhile, will identify which clean energy projects to fund in developing nations.
