The two big challenges for this century are world poverty and climate change. The clean development mechanism (CDM) has the potential to address both, through integrated programmes that will be in compliance with the needs and objectives of the host countries. Actual practice shows that CDM technology transfer is focused on reducing emissions at the lowest possible cost and less on the sustainable development priorities and objectives of the host countries. This paper discusses a participatory approach to facilitate energy decision makers and relevant stakeholders to define, evaluate and finally decide on the most suitable sustainable energy technologies to transfer and implement in a particular developing country through the CDM. Following an overview presentation of the methodology, the results from its application in Israel are presented and analysed. The last section comments on the case of Israel and provides insights of the adopted approach.
