Designated National Authority

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects require domestic monitoring by parties representing the government of the countries involved in the project. Such authority, known as Designated National Authority (DNA), is invested with great responsibility to approve and authorize the CDM projects. The DNA should be well supported by people who understand all of the procedures and rules of the Kyoto Protocol concerning structuring a project, financing, external investor, sustainable development considerations, and environmental laws. The Kyoto Protocol and the Marrakesh Agreement did not regulate all of the attributions of a DNA. This function was incumbent to each country, which in stipulating and designing their DNAs, should do so in a way that would ensure a body invested with transparency and that would facilitate the effectiveness and efficiency of the approval of a CDM project, and provide coordination to the government so that no requisition or approval necessary for the implementation of the CDM, especially in the host country, is obtained late. Among the primary functions of the Designated National Authority there is the writing of a Letter of Approval, designed to empower projects. In Brazil, the Designated National Authority is the Interministerial Commission on Global Climate Change (Comissão Interministerial de Mudança Global do Clima – CIMGC), established by the Presidential Decree of July 7, 1999.