Support for Voluntary Forest Carbon Markets at COP18

Campbell Moore, carbon specialist for the Rainforest Alliance, reports on developments in the voluntary carbon market at COP18.

Last week, I headed to Qatar to join the Rainforest Alliance’s climate team at COP18 and observe the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations.  In addition to providing a global platform to advance climate change policies and negotiations, the climate talks also serve as the world’s largest climate change trade fair, helping the Rainforest Alliance to spread the word about our important work and keep track of major developments concerning climate change and the world’s forests. One conversation that kept our attention: the emerging role of voluntary forest carbon standards and carbon markets.

Voluntary carbon markets continue to pioneer ways to leverage market forces for conservation, sustainability and climate change mitigation.  Forest carbon projects, including Afforestation and Reforestation (A/R), Improved Forest Management (IFM), and Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) play a crucial role in demonstrating that carbon projects can have legitimate benefits for people, climate and the environment.

Indeed, the REDD+ Mechanism that the COP to the UNFCCC have been negotiating for several years is a concept tested first in voluntary carbon markets.  In recent years, REDD+ has been one of the most successful approaches for conserving forests and biodiversity, and offering benefits to forest-dependent communities to emerge from the yearly negotiations.

Unfortunately, this year’s COP18 includes a possible stalling of REDD+ negotiations.  If talks conclude at a standstill, the voluntary carbon markets will continue to pave the way for some time. However, for REDD to succeed, the UNFCCC must accomplish more and more quickly. The finance needed to cut deforestation in half by 2030 is unlikely without an internationally agreed upon REDD framework. Nonetheless, there is much to be gained from the experience of private sector investment in voluntary forest carbon projects, which has broken innovative ground since the emergence of voluntary carbon standards.

For example, in 2012 VCS  – the current market leader — developed guidance on how to incorporate individual projects into scaled up national and regional initiatives.  Since nested REDD plans seems essential for effective execution, such guidance is extremely beneficial to the UNFCCC. Innovative and complex new methodologies, standards and guidance have also been developed for imperiled and high-carbon forest ecosystems like peat swamp forests and mangroves.  There is also an increased appreciation for the need to establish robust safeguards in these projects to ensure benefits to biodiversity and communities, evidenced by the great number of events on this topic often led by the Climate, Community, and Biodiversity Alliance.

As one of the leading auditors of forest carbon projects, the Rainforest Alliance helps to bring legitimacy and validity to this market.  From US to Peru and Madagascar to Indonesia, our auditors ensure that on the ground these projects have the utmost benefits for people, the environment and our global climate.

A Stalemate on REDD+ at COP18

Ian Starr, technical specialist for the Rainforest Alliance’s climate program, reports on the latest developments from COP18 in Doha, Qatar.

Over the past few days, the climate team has been following key discussion items under negotiation  at COP18, such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) and climate finance. Technical guidance on the implementation of REDD+ has been a particularly hot topic for conservation organizations at this year’s conference.

REDD+ aims to use market incentives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation while providing benefits like poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation.  Ultimately, REDD+ should make responsible forest management and conservation more lucrative than deforestation and forest degradation.

Known as the SBSTA, the UNFCCC’s Science and Technical advisory body is currently tasked with constructing the methodological guidance needed to move REDD+ from project-scale work to country-scale work.  The SBSTA met exclusively during the first week of negotiations and discussed some thorny issues. 

The SBSTA struggled to reach an agreement around text on measurement, reporting, verification (MRV) and monitoring of forest carbon stocks, and the crucial issue of how submitted REDD+ Reference Levels (RLs) would be assessed by the UNFCCC. (A reference level is comprised of information on changes in the amount of forest cover in a country as well is the emissions generated by deforestation. RLs form the fundamental emissions benchmark that would help shape the financing a country’s REDD+ activities.)

Despite the notoriously slow movement of COP negotiations, I’ve been present at several sessions where the developments in the drafting process moved at lightning speed.  For example, after four days of little progress, negotiators burned the midnight oil on Friday, working until 5 am on Saturday to make significant progress on a host of REDD+ issues, including finance. No agreement was reached, however.

On Saturday night, there was an extraordinary session of the SBSTA in which all delegates of the G-77 (the largest UNFCCC negotiating bloc, comprised of developing countries) and China huddled together in the back of the room while observers looked on in a last-ditch effort to reach an agreement. This was far outside normal protocol and indicative of the deep, shared commitment in the room to advance REDD+. Later in the same session, Norway and Brazil crossed the aisle mid-session to assess the possibility of reaching an agreement.

Ultimately, the session closed without consensus on a few crucial issues, risking making this the first time in five years that the SBSTA fails to make progress on REDD+ at COP. Despite the SBSTA’s formal closure, key players including Brazil, the United States, the European Union, Norway and Papua New Guinea voiced their commitment to pursuing alternative means of finding common ground on verification by making an appeal to the COP chair to continue REDD+ dialogues through other negotiating tracks in week two of the conference.  

There is reason to be hopeful. COP has been known to surprise and that element is still alive and well at Doha.

Lessons from COP17: Linking REDD+ from Local to National Scales

From COP17 in Durban, South Africa, Adam Gibbon — technical manager of the Rainforest Alliance’s climate program — reports on plans to integrate various efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD).

A recent report from Forest Trends indicates that there are at least 260 active REDD+ projects in 42 countries. Each year since 2002, the number of REDD+ projects has grown at a consistent rate. The projects range in scale from hundreds of hectares to hundreds of thousands of hectares. While they can have significant impacts at a regional level, ambitions for the negotiations underway in Durban aim higher. The goal is to make REDD+ operational at a national scale, and include it in the global agreement on mechanisms to reduce deforestation and degradation.

With deforestation and forest degradation accounting for 11 to 17 percent of global emissions, it’s clear that REDD+ must be part of any strategy to avoid dangerous climate change. Under fast-start funding from developed countries, preparation work is already underway for the development and management of REDD+ projects and programs in developing countries. The preparation involves (among other things): assessing national capacities; evaluating the drivers of deforestation; determining past rates of deforestation (and projecting future rates to generate a reference level); conducting stakeholder engagement; designing strategies to reduce deforestation and degradation; and designing forest monitoring systems. As part of this approach, countries may begin working at a more manageable ‘subnational’ level, in particular states or provinces.

REDD+ is moving forward at many different scales — national, subnational and project. But how will all of these initiatives interact, if the end goal of national level REDD+ is to be achieved?

• How will a project’s monitoring contribute to (or rely upon) national monitoring?
• How will different methods used for calculating expected deforestation rates and carbon stocks be harmonized?
• How will equitable benefit sharing mechanisms be designed for payments made for emissions reductions?

We need a so-called nested scheme, where projects can sit beneath subnational schemes which sit beneath national schemes. This should enable REDD+ programs to avoid inconsistencies (i.e. double-counting of credits), and move toward harmonization. The Rainforest Alliance has been active in designing the elements of such a nested scheme. Our climate program director, Jeff Hayward, and I are contributing to the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Jurisdictional and Nested REDD Initiative. Jeff sits on the Initiative’s Advisory Committee, while I have been leading one of the technical teams, which provides input to the committee. The initiative is exciting because it provides an opportunity to seek input from a wide variety of people to develop the detailed framework under which nesting can work. The technical recommendations are now available for viewing and in early 2012, a public comment period on a revised version of the recommendations will open.

How can these recommendations be applied in practice? The Rainforest Alliance’s Omar Samayoa is coordinating a pioneering project in the northern lowland forests of Guatemala’s Petén region, the country’s last remaining expanse of forest. Recently, protected areas in the region have suffered from low budgets, inadequate institutional presence, and ongoing deforestation. Sixty percent of Guatemala’s annual deforestation occurs in the Petén. However, Forest Stewardship Council/Rainforest Alliance Certified concessions — managed to comprehensive standards for social, environmental and economic sustainability — have bucked the trend and remain standing. The project aims to apply carbon finance to support ongoing management issues like tenure resolution, supporting local planning and law enforcement, delivering grants that support sustainable production and provide other social benefits for communities. To access carbon finance, the project is being coordinated under a regional scheme that includes two other projects, and all projects share estimates of deforestation made from the same model. It’s a concrete example of the nested approach in action.

Together with colleagues at the Rainforest Alliance, the VCS and many other institutions, I am excited to continue our work in strengthening REDD+ and demonstrating how it can work at multiple scales so that we can achieve a REDD+ mechanism with maximum efficiency, maximum integrity and, ultimately, maximum benefits for forest dependent communities and biodiversity.

Reflections on COP16 and Predictions on the Future of Climate Policy and Practice

For politicians, environmentalists, climate experts and others, the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties is the annual platform for discussions and decisions on global efforts to combat climate change. The culmination of the most recent meeting — COP 16 — and the development of the Cancun Agreements marked the beginning of real, substantive progress on a range of key climate issues. However, details about the actual implementation of many components of the Agreements have yet to emerge. We took a look at a few of the key outcomes from COP 16, and compiled a partial list of the thorny issues that still need to be resolved.

What Cancun means for REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation while promoting forest conservation) and REDD+ Financing

Clear signals were sent on REDD+. This clarity should help to stimulate the flow of finance to tropical forest nations and guide the development of national REDD+ strategies, plans and programs.

However, a finance delivery mechanism for REDD+ and other adaptation and mitigation activities still needs to be developed and implemented.

What Cancun means for general climate finance

Developed countries committed to fast-start climate finance totaling US$30 billion by 2012 and to long-term finance totaling US$100 billion per year by 2020. While there is a commitment to funding, the sources of these funds are yet to be determined. The roles of the public and private sector must be defined, and quickly, if fast-start financing commitments are to be delivered upon.

What Cancun means for agriculture

No decision on agriculture was reached; opinions are deeply divided. In the interim, expect progress on agriculture to come through its possible inclusion in national REDD+ programs — for example, by countries recognizing sustainable agriculture as eligible for REDD+ finance.

What Cancun means for emissions reductions

The Agreements are weak on mitigation. They “urge developed country Parties to increase [their] ambition,” but this is voluntary. Notably, the need to ultimately limit the increase of greenhouse gas emissions to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels was recognized in a COP decision for the first time; however, even if all countries meet their most ambitious targets, we would still fall 40 percent short of the 2°C goal. At current rates, average global temperatures are projected to rise 2 to 4°C by the end of the century.  It is uncertain if, or how, this gap can be bridged; the political will is currently lacking.

We have also failed to receive binding commitments from the US and China on the second implementation period of the Kyoto Protocol. Ambitious commitments from the world’s biggest emitters will be key to any successful extension of the Kyoto climate deal.

What else is on the table for 2011?

As this partial list implies, while the Cancun Agreements represent progress, much work remains. In 2011, we look forward to:

• The UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technical Advice (SBSTA) developing a strategy to set a national forest reference emission level and/or forest reference levels; national forest monitoring systems; and guidance on how safeguards will be addressed and respected. Progress in this area will help tropical nations transparently monitor, report upon, and verify their emissions reductions activities. SBSTA’s first 2011 session is in June, and the Rainforest Alliance and our partners will issue position papers on these issues for delegates.
• Continuing to monitor — as an observer — the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and Forest Investment Program as new countries apply for funds and currently supported countries advance their REDD+ readiness activities.

Want to learn more? A few recommendations for further reading:

• Climate Focus – The Cancun Agreements: Summary and Analysis
• Ecofys – Cancun Briefing Paper
• Pew Center on Global Climate Change – COP16 Summary
• The Climate Group – Post-Cancun Analysis

A Balanced, Solid Climate Deal Reached in Cancún, including REDD+

After a grueling couple of weeks, delegates at the climate talks in Cancún, Mexico succeeded in producing an agreement[1] on a range of important issues ranging from REDD+, to financing that will cover costs of adapting to climate change, to ensuring transparency and accountability of countries’ efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Negotiating early into the morning on Saturday, December 11^th, the 194 member states to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) collectively expressed widespread support for the deal, even though most countries had to make compromises.

Representing decisions within two parallel negotiating tracks, and termed the “Cancún Agreements”, the accord demonstrates that the UNFCCC is functioning, restoring its battered image after the failure of the climate talks in Copenhagen last year. Now there’s reason to be optimistic that further multilateral agreements can  be reached before 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period ends.  In the final hours of negotiations early Saturday morning, country after country stated  support for the package, and more than that,  appreciation for the way the negotiations were deftly handled by Mexico, embodying a spirit of transparency and democracy sorely missing in Copenhagen.

The Rainforest Alliance, represented at the conference by a team of agriculture, forestry and climate change experts, is particularly supportive of the text regarding REDD+, including the following positive points:

• The scope of REDD+ remains intact, encompassing not only reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation but also conservation of forest carbon stocks, sustainable management of forests and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks (in Article 70).
• A call for the development of national level forest monitoring and reporting , with sub-national monitoring and reporting being acceptable as an interim measure (in Article 71-C).
• A call for including social and environmental safeguards to accompany REDD+ activities (cited throughout the text) and guidance (in  ANNEX 1) on setting up systems for safeguards that include:
  • “Transparent and effective national forest governance structures, taking into account national legislation and sovereignty”;
  • “Respect for the knowledge and rights of indigenous peoples and members of local communities, by taking into account relevant international obligations, national circumstances and laws, and noting that the United Nations General Assembly has adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”;
  • “The full and effective participation of relevant stakeholders, in particular, indigenous peoples and local communities”;
  • “Actions are consistent with the conservation of natural forests and biological diversity….[actions] used to incentivize the protection and conservation of natural forests and their ecosystem services, and to enhance other social and environmental benefits.”

• Consideration of both market and non-market (i.e. fund-based) approaches to financing for REDD+ activities, which take into account the differing circumstances of developed and developing countries (Articles 80 and 84).

The landmark agreements should help push the developed countries to make good on the financial commitments made at COP15 last year in Copenhagen, which could total nearly $30 billion by 2012.

This  financing is targeted towards a suite of “REDD-readiness” activities, such as developing national forest inventories and baselines,   building capacity and initiating demonstration projects – - the cornerstones of any successful REDD+ program.

While the Cancún Agreements represent significant progress, the breadth of needs that must be met to make REDD+ operational, technically and socially, across the tropics, are daunting. Nonetheless, the Rainforest Alliance delegation departs from Cancún on a highnote, committed to re-doubling our efforts to make REDD+ work.

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[1] The government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia objected to the agreements, but was overruled in light of the broad consensus reached among all other parties.

Decision on REDD+ Needed Now — The Last Day of COP16

On the last day of the 16^thConference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, it’s possible that leaders will achieve a compromise and still enable an effective decision on REDD+^[1] . Ultimately it comes down to political will, although some unpredictable wildcards – pariahs and spoilers, 11^th hour demands, newly entrenched positions – could still stall decision.

The Rainforest Alliance has seen the draft text, we’ve talked to insiders, and all signs indicate resolvable issues and means to agreement on the few points under heady discussion on REDD+.  Since we last posted about the negotiations, on December 6, an updated text was issued and new text is coming. With the meetings scheduled to end on December 10, ministers are now meeting and advising their country’s highest-level decision-makers about how they should commit on the critical points related to financial support, measurement and reporting, and safeguarding the safeguards (which are fundamental to civil society regarding respect for indigenous peoples’ rights and to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services, although any safeguard text will be stated principles, not operational protocols).

As with a growing number of observers and parties on the ground in Cancun, Mexico, the Rainforest Alliance echoes a call heard frequently this week – the time for political compromise is now in order for this COP to result in positive actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

As previously reported, we encourage ministers to include a goal that is as strong as possible in terms of reducing forest cover and carbon loss, to include language on monitoring and sharing information safeguards, and, on finance, to include support for all three phases of REDD+, which means funding for safeguards and early action; to explore all options for financing of results-based actions; and to ensure that those activities are supported through adequate, predictable and sustainable finance.

Countries can come to agreement on these elements. The Latin American countries, in particular Mexico and Brazil, have shown great leadership in bringing others together.

There is much work to be done, but in order to keep the UNFCCC process relevant and moving forward there must be a decision coming out of this Conference of Parties. And if an agreement is reached on the framework for approaches for REDD+, it will need to authorize a technical working group to develop some detailed instructions for methodological issues such as determining forest emission reference levels and on the ground operational aspects.

We’ll know soon enough whether the time for compromise and action truly was now. Because if not now, one year after Copenhagen, then when, if at all?

^[1] REDD+ is reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries; and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries

Live Video Update from COP16

Jeff Hayward, director of the Rainforest Alliance’s climate program, gives a live summary of the Rainforest Alliance’s goals for COP16.

The Take Away from Forest Day: We Are Ready to Make REDD+ Work

This year’s Forest Day brought together over 1,500 technical experts, climate negotiators, researchers, forestry practitioners, government representatives, donors and other stakeholder groups to share experience and inform the ongoing climate change negotiations of the UNFCCC. The Rainforest Alliance reflects…

“Time to act” was the official slogan of this year’s Forest Day, held on Sunday, December 5 at COP16 in Cancún, Mexico. Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s keynote speech set the tone for the day’s events – his urgent call to action on REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation, and forest conservation) and push for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) robust incorporation and approval of a REDD+ mechanism here and now invigorated and inspired those of us who have been working for years to ensure that the international community recognizes the crucial role of forests in climate change.

For it truly is time to act — on a global scale and through the framework of the UNFCCC — to incentivize forest conservation, combat the root causes of deforestation and improve the livelihoods of the hundreds of millions of rural poor who depend on forest resources for their livelihoods.

Forest Day 4 showed that, in many cases, the research, systems, projects and tools required for on-the-ground implementation are already proving that REDD+ can conserve tropical forests and improve livelihoods for forest-dwelling people.

Questions are often raised about how forest carbon projects can provide benefits to local people and the environment. At Forest Day, Joanna Durbin of the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCB) demonstrated how standards can and do assure benefits beyond carbon. Projects from the Philippines to Brazil are using the CCB Standards to provide tangible benefits to local communities and environments. Last week, the government of Ecuador demonstrated early progress on its implementation of standards to guide the development of national-level systems for REDD+.

Doubts have also been raised about how projects and governments can reliably carry out carbon credit accounting. However, tools and guidance are already being developed to do this; in fact, during COP16, two landmark carbon accounting systems have already been approved.*

There are concerns about reliably ensuring the monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of REDD projects. Fortunately, there are many organizations who are already conducting independent, third-party audits of REDD projects to verify the claims they make — the Rainforest Alliance is one such organization.

While there was much healthy debate about how to build on and further advance these early initiatives to strengthen any emergent REDD+ system – and much work remains to be done to refine, adapt and scale these early efforts – one point was driven home time and time again by Forest Day attendees: we have enough research, data, analysis, projects, tools, examples and guidance to get REDD+ off the ground, and we are ready and able to make this work.

We hope that the several hundred climate negotiators who attended Forest Day have taken note, and will bear this in mind as negotiations progress this week.

*Learn more about the two landmark carbon accounting systems that have been approved:

• http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php?page_id=7869&section=news_articles&eod=1

• http://www.v-c-s.org/docs/VCS_Statement_TerraGlobal_Approved_FINAL_3_ December_2010[1].pdf

Update on REDD+ Negotiations from COP16

We are pleased to report that there seems to be emerging consensus between countries on the negotiating text that they may adopt on REDD + (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation and carbon sequestration in forests). The text that is currently being discussed represents a compromise between certain countries’ wide-ranging positions. There are still issues for the countries’ negotiators to discuss, chief among them:

• Framing the goal (i.e. the target for halting deforestation) for reductions of emissions or removals from REDD+. We recommend that this goal be included and be as strong as possible.
• Determining exactly how rigorous the monitoring of environmental and social safeguards will be. We recommend monitoring and reporting on these safeguards.
• Identifying the options for financing REDD+ programs and activities. We recommend leaving the options open for support for REDD+ early action and activities through a variety of funding sources, including both funds and markets.

Yesterday at Forest Day 4 (a day-long side event), President Felipe Calderon of Mexico demonstrated his strong understanding of and support for REDD+. As the host country of the COP, Mexico can show leadership in helping other countries commit to a REDD+ decision in Cancun as part of a balanced package that creates a framework for a comprehensive, legally binding agreement at COP17 in Durban, South Africa in December of 2011.  We encourage the Parties to move forward on this text and to finalize a REDD+ decision this week.

Perspectives from COP16

Victor Mombu, the Rainforest Alliance’s environmental services specialist in Ghana, reports live from COP16.

Check back for more video reports from COP16 later this week!