Emerging Approaches To Forest Reference Emission Levels And Or Forest Reference Levels For Redd

" ... the reference guide introduces the basic guidance on the most relevant aspects of REDD+ projects provided by 3 well-established standards deemed to be the most representative of their kind: the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) ... the Plan Vivo System ... and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Project Design Standards (CCB)

REDD+ is one of the leading near-term options for global climate change mitigation. More than 300 subnational REDD+ initiatives have been launched across the tropics, responding to both the call for demonstration activities in the Bali Action Plan and the market for voluntary carbon offset credits.

This report provides an update on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation Plus1 (REDD+) forest reference (emission) levels (FREL/FRLs) and REDD+ results submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and relevant developments under the Green Climate Fund concerningREDD+ results-based payments. It illustrates the choices countries have made when constructing their FREL/FRLs and areas for improvement identified during technical assessments. Such information can help countries to learn from each other.

Amid the discontent of developing countries about the lack of reliable finance for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+), the issue of verification of results-based activities reached an impasse in the 2012 Doha negotiation round of the UN Climate Convention, leading to the suspension of the formulation of a REDD+ Methodological Guidance. The disillusion about REDD+ finance mainly stems from the weakness of demand on carbon markets. Presently, development assistance is the main funding source, which brings up the old debate around aid conditionality, because obviously ‘results-based’ implies conditionality for funding. This paper assesses the issues of REDD+ financing and verification in the context of the negotiation positions of the key countries in the present debate. In its preparation, a number of interviews with REDD+ negotiators have been undertaken, in order to better understand the different positions. The study first narrows down the focus on international verification to UN-based funding mechanisms, while bilateral and multilateral funding for individual country activities will usually be granted under individually agreed conditions. Summing up, the study proposes options for the consistent verification of all Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Options, of which REDD+ is only one, under a transparent, peer-reviewed International Assessment and Review process. The more realistic proposal seems to be a second-best option of verifying REDD+ activities only. A REDD+ Effectiveness Assessment is proposed for internationally results-based finance for REDD+ emission reductions at national level. Different modalities are discussed for the choice of reviewers.

A search for new methods for dealing with climate change led to the identification of forest maintenance as a potential policy option that could cost-effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with the development of measures for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). This book explores how an analysis of past forest governance patterns from the global through to the local level, can help us to build institutions which more effectively deal with forests within the climate change regime. The book assesses the options for reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries under the international climate regime, as well as the incentives flowing from them at the national and sub national level and examines how these policy levers change human behaviour and interface with the drivers and pressures of land use change in tropical forests. The book considers the trade-offs between certain forestry related policies within the current climate regime and the larger goal of sustainable forestry. Based on an assessment of existing multi-level institutional forestry arrangements, the book questions how policy frameworks can be better designed in order to effectively and equitably govern the challenges of deforestation and land degradation under the global climate change regime. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of Law and Environmental Studies.