This report covers the work undertaken by the Executive Board of the clean development mechanism (CDM) from 1 September 2018 to 12 September 2019. Work focused on further simplifying the mechanism and facilitating its use. The reporting period saw a decrease in project registrations and issuance of certified emission reductions compared with the previous reporting period, but an increase in the number of projects entering validation and in the number of component project activities being added to programmes of activities. Demand for the CDM and its certified emission reductions remains low compared with demand in the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which ended in 2012. The document includes a report, requested by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) at its fourteenth session, on the financial situation of the CDM, and a recommendation that CMP 15 provide guidance on the functioning of the CDM beyond the end of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.