Carbon credits

SN Power is developing renewable hydropower projects in emerging markets, few of which have implemented domestic measures to curb emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2. Renewable energy is therefore less viable here than in, for example, Europe, and less viable than it would have been if emissions were priced at the appropriate level to effectively combat climate change.

Carbon credits

UN backed carbon credits, through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a collective international effort to make up for this shortfall by giving a market-based subsidy to emission reducing projects in developing countries that are "additional", i.e. that would not have happened without the CDM. The CDM is financed by polluting industry and states in the industrialised world through the purchase of carbon credits to cover their compliance obligation.