Paris talks keep up REDD momentum

The first steps to kick start a global REDD scheme to halt deforestation and build on progress in Copenhagen have been taken at a meeting in Paris. A further $1 billion has been promised and a ten-nation steering group established to drive the implementation of a global avoided deforestation and forest carbon enhancement mechanism over the next three years

AP in Carbon Positive | 15 March 2010

French President Nicola Sarkozy hosted the closed-door International Conference on the Major Forest Basins last Thursday, the first high-level gathering on forests since the UN’s Copenhagen climate conference in December. It drew representatives from more than 60 nations - donor developed countries and forest-rich developing nations - along with UN and World Bank representatives.

The group aims to work up a concrete, detailed plan for the rolling out of a global REDD+ scheme to take to the next annual UN climate conference in Cancun, Mexico, in December. A second meeting is scheduled for Oslo, Norway in May. REDD+ includes activities aimed at reducing emissions due to deforestation, reducing emissions due to forest degradation, boosting forest carbon stocks and sustainable forest management.

REDD negotiations were one of the few areas of major progress in Copenhagen, with a final agreement prevented only by the lack of an overarching climate agreement which would have drawn in REDD text as one of its components. A number of technical and social issues surrounding avoided deforestation activity were resolved at the Copenhagen talks, while the US, Australia, France, Japan, Norway and the UK made pledges worth $3.5 billion for fast-start funds to enable REDD+.

The Paris conference saw this amount increased to $4.5 billion with additions from other donors. Germany has also promised devote 20 to 30 per cent of its overall 2010-2012 fast-start climate change funding to the initiative – an amount still subject to Berlin’s budget planning process.

Ten nations from among both developed and developing nations were appointed to form a REDD+ steering group. Among its first tasks would be to consider how to fairly carve up the billions in early funding among forest nations, which include Brazil, Congo, Indonesia and a host of smaller tropical countries.

The various international forest stakeholders – developing world governments, environmental NGOs, the UN and World Bank – are now keen to see that that momentum is not lost. Broad agreement has been reached on principles of REDD+ and safeguards for forest and indigenous peoples, WWF says. The new grouping represents a critical opportunity to mobilise early action and financing on REDD+ and that’s an opportunity that cannot be ignored, WWF’s Forest Carbon Initiative Leader Chris Elliott says.

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