REDD+ Blog
Welcome to Pact’s REDD+ blog, a place to read updates and insights from Pact’s REDD+ program.
Closing Thoughts on COP16
11 December 2010
By Keegan Eisenstadt, REDD+ and Carbon Forestry Advisor
Hello Pact friends and climate change concerned citizens,
I'm still in Cancún and feeling very inspired by the action from 3:30AM this morning. Quite honestly, this is a truly impressive feat of diplomacy by the Mexicans. This is a big win for REDD, CCS, and a new Green Fund (World Bank is interim trustee). All major players are happy (with the exception of a small block headed by Bolivia, Cuba, and Venezuela).
Specific elements of the Cancún Agreements include:
- Industrialized country targets are officially recognized under the multilateral process and these countries are to develop low-carbon development plans and strategies and assess how best to meet them, including through market mechanisms, and to report their inventories annually.
- Developing country actions to reduce emissions are officially recognized under the multilateral process. A registry is to be set up to record and match developing country mitigation actions to finance and technology support from by industrialized countries. Developing countries are to publish progress reports every two years.
- Parties meeting under the Kyoto Protocol agree to continue negotiations with the aim of completing their work and ensuring there is no gap between the first and second commitment periods of the treaty.
- The Kyoto Protocols Clean Development Mechanisms has been strengthened to drive more major investments and technology into environmentally sound and sustainable emission reduction projects in the developing world.
- Parties launched a set of initiatives and institutions to protect the vulnerable from climate change and to deploy the money and technology that developing countries need to plan and build their own sustainable futures.
- A total of $30 billion in fast start finance from industrialized countries to support climate action in the developing world up to 2012 and the intention to raise $100 billion in long-term funds by 2020 are included in the decisions.
- In the field of climate finance, a process to design a Green Climate Fund under the Conference of the Parties, with a board with equal representation from developed and developing countries, is established.
- A new Cancun Adaptation Framework is established to allow better planning and implementation of adaptation projects in developing countries through increased financial and technical support, including a clear process for continuing work on loss and damage.
- Governments agree to boost action to curb emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries with technological and financial support. This is the REDD+ agreement we have been waiting for!
- Parties have established a technology mechanism with a Technology Executive Committee and Climate Technology Centre and Network to increase technology cooperation to support action on adaptation and mitigation.
Now that we have a process, and restored confidence in the UN system, we are excited to move forward and work with communities around the world to collectively solve the threats to our common future.
Getting Forests Across the Finish Line
9 December 2010
By Keegan Eisenstadt, REDD+ and Carbon Forestry Advisor
I attended a high profile session last night where the message of REDD+ as a mainstream idea was evident. The event, put on by the Avoided Deforestation Partners, included Presidents and Prime Ministers of some countries, as well as Presidents and CEOs of the World Bank, big conservation organizations and Wal-Mart. The idea that REDD+ would be promoted publicly by the president of the World Bank, The President of Wal Mart and Jane Goodall is a snapshot of the broad consensus forming around REDD+ at this meeting, and globally. There were times I felt the assembled community of REDD+ supporters was surreal for so many constituencies in the world.
As the Cancun Climate Meetings enter the final stretch, there is cause to be cautiously optimistic. There appears to be relative progress on a number of issues: REDD+, Adaptation, Technology Transfer, Capacity Building and parts of the Financing. The newly proposed Adaptation financing mechanism is not defined at all, and issues relating to Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) remain very contentious. Overall, the question of having a market mechanism that uses offsets from developing countries is agreed upon, with significant exceptions from a few countries.
When I ask delegates, “What looks good?”, they unanimously answer, “REDD+ seems to be looking good!” That is Great News! But it is also a result of the significant work done to reach agreement on REDD+ prior to everyone arriving in Cancun. That said, Bolivia and a few other countries are very opposed to a market mechanism for REDD+, and may have some influence on the final nature of the agreement and the language of the agreement.
Keegan
REDD+: The movement towards voluntary markets, and sub-national action
9 December 2010
By Keegan Eisenstadt, REDD+ and Carbon Forestry Advisor
The heavy interest in REDD+ projects, like the Oddar Meanchey REDD+ project in Cambodia that Pact is implementing with others, is palpable here in Cancun. What is not so evident is whether the compliance markets are going to be ready to move the REDD+ agenda forward. Even if an agreement comes out of this COP, it will effectively be authorizing the technical working groups to begin work on the protocols and methodologies for national level REDD. I repeat, to BEGIN work.
Timed to coincide with the COP meetings, the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) has approved two distinct methodologies for use in the market and the Climate Action Reserve (CAR) of California has formally begun the process to include REDD+ from the States of Yucatan, Campeche and Quintana Roo in Mexico. So the voluntary carbon market is releasing REDD+ project methodologies for use around the world, and CAR is beginning to formally push sub-national action for the California compliance cap and trade market. The development of these two tracks is vitally important for REDD+. It formally opens a path to market for actions that have been contemplated, or are currently being worked on in the field, to access the market NOW. It also demonstrates the interest of the marketplace for REDD+ credits; and the fact that the world has moved on.
There is a sense that the UN process is already behind the Voluntary Market and the regional compliance carbon markets with respect to REDD+. This may not be true forever, but there is certainly a window for the next few years when the voluntary market and the CAR market will dominate the action on the ground. I hope that the UNFCCC process will embrace the work done in those markets and learn from them for the CDM – and not decide to reinvent the wheel.
In the short term, I look forward to Pact’s implementing role on the Cambodia project – under the newly validated VCS methodology!
Saludos a todos,
Keegan
Bright Spots at COP16
6 December 2010
By Keegan Eisenstadt, REDD+ and Carbon Forestry Advisor
It looks as though REDD is going to be a bright spot coming out of the Cancun COP16 meetings. There are a lot of negotiations still pending – and the familiar fault lines between country blocks are ever present – but REDD is one of the few items that is positioned well to exit these meetings and move to the Technical bodies of the UNFCCC. The REDD negotiating text contains two options – Option 1 (from the meetings previously held in Tianjin) and Option 2 (from last year's COP15 in Copenhagen) . Most groups thought that Option 2 would likely prevail at the negotiations in Cancun. Thus, preparations were made to comment on and suggest text as it pertains to Option 2. However, the Chair’s text (CRP.1) was introduced just prior to the opening of COP-16 in Cancun. The consensus among most NGOs is that the Chair’s REDD text sets a good starting point, but most are refraining to officially comment until the delegations have indicated which option they wish to pursue.
I notice that numerous observer groups are working at attempting to incorporate language that includes international demand side drivers and safeguards in all options. These organizations are adamant that REDD will not be a success until these international drivers are considered and addressed. This was further emphasized at the UN REDD Programme’s side event on biodiversity, where Michael Bucki of the European Commission (EC) indicated the importance of international drivers and that the EC will be commencing a study on international drivers in January, to be concluded in May. This, and the universal support of Partners and Stakeholders of the REDD+ Partnership to prioritize the need to address international demand side drivers, will hopefully provide the necessary impetus to ensure a successful outcome for REDD.
Additionally, it is very interesting to note that the voluntary market has approved a number of REDD methodologies in the last week. With both the Mosaic REDD Methodology from Terra Global Capital and the REDD Toolbox from Avoided Deforestation Partners having completed the double validation process and being released for use by all project developers under the VCS. This is now the driver of the global REDD program, in any real market sense, and is complicating the negotiations as well - as the voluntary market is way out front of the regulatory carbon market on developing methodologies and protocols for REDD projects. It is an interesting time - to watch the compliance markets rush to stay in front, while already behind.
Many different discussions are taking place and the negotiations are truly beginning as this is the second week of the COP. It will be interesting to see what moves through the process and is passed on to the technical working groups.
Cheers from warm Cancun (which is heating up!),
Keegan
