Climate Justice Action: Gearing up for Cancun

> Dina Fine Maron, E&E reporter
>
> Protecting tropical forests has widespread support in international
> climate negotiations, but experts fear a program aimed at ending
> deforestation could get ensnared in a thicket of unrelated
> controversies at the upcoming U.N. global warming talks.
>
> Rewarding developing countries for protecting their forests through
> the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
> program (REDD-plus) is viewed as one of the few issues that can gain
> some traction during the climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, slated to
> start next week. But, in the days leading up to the summit, analysts
> said REDD is threatened by still-looming disagreements on other
> issues like how transparent mitigation efforts should be and how to
> gear up funding for vulnerable countries.
>
> "It's a package deal," said Bruce Cabarle, who heads the Forest
> Carbon Initiative at the World Wildlife Fund. "That is what has made
> the negotiations somewhat complex. You cannot optimize for one
> variable -- you have to solve for the entire equation, and therein
> lies the challenge of addressing climate change."
>
> Cancun would not be the first time REDD was caught in the cross fire
> of larger fights.
>
> Countries worked out much of the language about the initial stages
> of the REDD program at last year's climate conference in Copenhagen,
> Denmark. But by the end of the U.N. summit, when hopes for any
> larger climate agreement ran aground, any chance for a legally
> binding agreement on deforestation fell apart.
>
> Now some experts are wondering if REDD should step out on its own to
> avoid a similar fate. At stake is curbing deforestation, which
> accounts for about 17 percent of global emissions.
>
> Putting a carbon value on saving trees
>
> The REDD program aims to slash deforestation and forest degradation
> in developing countries by placing a carbon value on trees'
> preservation. Under REDD, developing countries would be paid to save
> their forests and enhance forest stocks rather than allow forests to
> be converted into agricultural lands or felled for timber.
>
> Exactly how the program would be financed -- whether it would be
> through a carbon market, offsets, bilateral or multilateral funding,
> or some hybrid of the options -- is something that would likely be
> settled at future climate negotiations.
>
> At Cancun, however, negotiators must agree upon their global goal
> for reducing emissions through deforestation, firm up social and
> environmental safeguard mechanisms for the program, and attempt to
> address the root causes of deforestation -- at a bare minimum,
> according to Cabarle.
>
> Negotiators say their goal is to develop one set of broad draft
> decisions that would lay the framework for future discussions on
> adaptation, financing, technology transfer, monitoring and
> evaluation -- as well as REDD. While there are few aspirations to
> net a comprehensive, legally binding agreement at this meeting, the
> plan is to tether these issues together in one "balanced" package.
>
> Shaking REDD free from other thorny negotiating issues would be no
> small task, said Manfred Konukiewitz, head of global and sectoral
> affairs at the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and
> Development.
>
> "There are limits to how far we can go if we split [REDD] off into
> its own track, because we quickly come back to these issues of
> finance, targets, technology transfer, transparency and
> accountability," agreed Cabarle.
>
> Negotiating the road to 'Oz'
>
> "All roads lead back to Oz, but that's not to say we can't build
> part of the road as go along," he said. "I think if there are
> opportunities to move ahead on the REDD agreement, we shouldn't let
> the pursuit of the perfect be the enemy of the good.
>
> Nailing down any overarching document at Cancun may mean that some
> of the details that were agreed upon in Copenhagen and then built
> upon in subsequent meetings may fall by the wayside, said Florence
> Daviet, who works on these issues at the World Resources Institute.
>
> But formalizing any language on REDD to keep the ball rolling would
> still be good news, said Sascha Müller-Kraenner, the Nature
> Conservancy's European representative.
>
> "At this point, in my view, it is not so much about the specific
> language of a REDD decision," he said. "It's about the political
> signal to tropical forest countries as well as to donors that REDD-
> plus remains a central piece within the overall picture of
> addressing climate change."
>
> "We need to create coalitions of the willing so those who want to
> move forward can move forward. There's no need to wait for an
> [overarching] agreement," said Norwegian Environment Minister Erik
> Solheim.
>
> Norway leads with its checkbook
>
> So far, REDD has managed to make strides with initial pilot projects
> and readiness efforts even in the absence of formalized language.
> Norway has led the way, pledging aid dollars to Brazil, Guyana and
> Indonesia to preserve those respective countries' forests.
>
> Indonesia, which already has several REDD pilot projects in place --
> even before it taps the $1 billion Norway pledged this year to help
> strengthen its efforts -- plans to continue to move forward with
> REDD regardless of international language.
>
> "REDD is necessary for our development," said Salman Al Farisi, the
> deputy chief of mission for the Embassy of Indonesia. "It's central
> to Indonesia's growth," he said. Large swaths of the country's
> forests have been felled and peatlands drained as palm oil and paper
> industries expand their operations. The country is reportedly the
> world's third-largest greenhouse gas emitter.
>
> Punting REDD until next year's climate negotiations in South Africa
> would not mean that the program would collapse, said Peter Saile,
> senior REDD expert at the German Technical Cooperation. But the
> "order of magnitude" of the program will be decided by the framework
> of the program, he said.
>
> "I'm not worried about countries that have been fast-moving on this;
> they will find a way," said Saile. Fragile countries lacking in
> infrastructure, however, will lose out, he said.
>
> Reporter Lisa Friedman contributed.
>