Firms that audit greenhouse gas-cutting projects approved under a Kyoto Protocol carbon offset scheme received poor grades from green groups for a second year, a report said on Monday. Unqualified and insufficiently trained personnel was cited by WWF and Germany's Oeko-Institute as a problem plaguing emissions auditors, accompanied by ambiguous scheme rules and a general failure to show that the clean energy projects they approved would not be feasible without getting carbon offsets. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a $2.7 billion scheme under Kyoto, lets companies invest in emissions cuts in emerging nations and in return get offsets once the projects are verified by auditors called Designated Operational Entities (DOEs). The report found that the CDM's executive board demanded more corrections in documents submitted by auditors this year than in 2009, a sign that could indicate DOEs are making more mistakes or that the board has increased scrutiny over projects.

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