The UN has set up a fifth Regional Collaboration Centre (RCC), its first in the Asia-Pacific region, to help attract further investment in the CDM and boost spending in low-carbon technologies.

The RCC, to open in Bangkok on Sep. 1, is the result of a partnership between the UNFCCC and the Japan-headquartered Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES).

“The Centre will support all countries in the region in identifying and designing CDM projects and offering opportunities to reduce transaction costs,” the UNFCCC said in a press release on Thursday.

The Thailand-based CDM hub will work together with other existing centres located in Togo, Uganda, Grenada and Colombia.

The first RCCs were opened some two years ago in order to attract cleantech spending to regions under-represented in the CDM, amid a slowdown in investment triggered in part by rock-bottom carbon credit prices under the scheme.

Asian countries already make up more than 80% of the total number of projects registered in the CDM, though the bulk of those are located in either China or India.

According to UN data, while Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam also host their fair share, half of the 23 Asian-Pacific countries have 10 or fewer registered CDM projects, including just one in Myanmar and zero in both Timor-Leste and Vanuatu.

The CDM’s Executive Board last month mandated an evaluation of the RCCs to assess their effectiveness in increasing participation in the Kyoto Protocol carbon finance programme.

By Mike Szabo – mike@carbon-pulse.com