Do Clean Development Mechanism Projects Generate Local Employment? Testing for Sectoral Effects across Brazilian Municipalities

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) investments have the two-fold objective of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to sustainable development. But while the contribution to mitigation has been analysed extensively in the literature, the impact on development has barely been quantified empirically. This paper intends to address this latter gap by investigating the impact of different types of CDM investments on local employment generation. A dynamic panel regression model for the period 2004-2014 across Brazilian municipalities supports that some CDM projects have not only stimulated job creation beyond the renewable energy sector, but also had a contractive effect in some economic sectors. We find moreover a clear difference by project type: For waste handling and methane avoidance projects, overall employment increases while no such effect emerges for hydro projects. However, these job effects are mainly transitory, i.e. in the first or second year after the project's registration; the expansion effect can be explained as a result of local employment demands generated during the project's construction and operation phases. The lack of durability or the temporary effects in employment of these projects might question the contribution of their benefits to local sustainable development.