The Designated National Authorities (DNAs) was pivotal for developing countries in achieving sustainable development contributions from Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change CDM projects must be approved by the host country, thus, DNAs issues a Letter of Approval certifying that the proposed CDM project activity supports the host country in achieving sustainable development. The focus of the paper is particularly on the role of the DNA, which is a national agency responsible for approving the country’s CDM projects. The paper provides a comparative institutional analysis of the DNAs in the two countries. Three dimensions of the DNAs are considered: their structures, their policies and the CDM project market building capacity. The results of the study shows the capacity building to tackle the challenges associated have had some positive impacts to achieve sustainable development. Brazil established five criteria: local environmental sustainability; development of working conditions and net job creation; income distribution; training and technological development; and contribution to regional integration and linkages with other sectors. In Mexico, the DNA's criteria include: compliance with national environmental regulations; contribution to the improvement of the economic and competitive situation of the country (through investments, wealth generation/employment and technology transfer); and contribution to maintaining and improving the quality of life of communities (with permanent jobs that promote equity, improving community health, creating or improving local infrastructure and capacity building). However, in CDM projects there is absence of requirements for monitoring, there is no verification of whether expected sustainable developments benefits are actually achieved, and as sustainable development has no monetary value in the carbon market, the trend has been to prioritize the Certified Emission Reductions. The countries emphasized the economic aspect. We conclude that political and institutional factors, including legal aspects, stimulate different forms of transformation processes of relevance to sustainable development across countries, which could be serve under Paris Agreement.
Keywords: Governance, Institution, Designated National Authority, Clean Development Mechanism, Public Policy, Sustainable Development, Paris Agreement.
