Luz Verde is the first-ever Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project under a Programme of Activities (PoA) to receive carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol. On 28 December 2012, the UN issued 19,000 certified emission reductions (CERs) to the project, which was developed by Cool nrg International with project financing from ING Bank, advised by De Brauw as lead counsel. This first issuance was hailed by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change as a milestone in the evolution of the global carbon market because programmatic CDM has the potential to "scale up" and get carbon finance to the world's poorest regions.
Under the Luz Verde (Cuidemos) project, energy efficient light bulbs were distributed across Mexico. In 2010, the financing of the project was acclaimed " Carbon Finance Deal of the Year" by Environmental Finance Magazine and highly commended by the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Report.
Stephen Hibbert, global head of carbon and energy efficiency at ING Commercial Banking: "ING is proud to have been the project loan provider for the first project. The successful CER issuance proves the operating model for programmatic CDM and is a tribute to the vision, pioneering spirit and perseverance of the Cool nrg team".
Cool nrg Chairman Nic Frances: "We are very excited to have delivered the world's first CERs from programmatic CDM. Cool nrg is committed to delivering projects that are innovative, reduce CO2 and help communities. Our Cuidemos project meets all those goals. The amount of CO2 reduction associated with this issuance is equivalent to planting more than 100,000 trees, and 98% of the light bulbs went to families in the three poorest demographic sectors."
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