Citola Blog
Painting It REDD In Paris And Singapore
The talk at least sounds encouraging. The noises emerging from a Paris talkfest on a global REDD scheme to halt deforestation, hosted by French premier, Nicola Sarkozy, seem very pleasant.
The ten-nation group has promised to stump up a further $1 billion to promote REDD schemes over the next three years. The schedule involves having a set of specific proposals ready for discussion at the next meeting in Mexico in December. The idea seems to be that group action and actually signing up will definitely be completed come the next meeting in Oslo in May 2011.
We are pleased to see the continued activity and the generally very positive response to reforestation. The REDD area was one of the few that actually yielded positive results at Copenhagen’s COP conference last December.
Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Japan and Norway promised to put $3.5 billion to get REDD+, a fast-start fund, off the ground. The extra $1 billion is excellent news – with the funds earmarked for forestation projects in Brazil, Congo and Indonesia.
The Indonesians are set to hold bilateral talks with the Australian government on a range of issues, including reforestation very soon. The Indonesian premier, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is in Australia to discuss this and other issues. Here you can read a transcript of a radio interview with the Indonesian forestry commissioner, Wandojo Siswento, and Clare Walsh, of the Australian Department of Climate Change. The tone is friendly, but the language, as you will see, is careful. The speakers don’t want to pre-empt the actual discussions.
And there’s plenty of opportunity for discussion: One of the biggest carbon conferences of the calendar year is coming up in Singapore in May. Along with the hot topic of REDD, a major talking point will be how the carbon markets – once so robust – have changed in recent months. The conference will offer a good opportunity to get a handle on the rapidly change business of carbon trading, its impact on business and, of course, in the environment.
Post new comment