Citola Blog
REDD, Deforestation, Markets and Cancun [video]
Every year more than 13 million hectares (32 million acres) of forests are lost from deforestation which equates to an area the size of England. This deforestation causes 12-18 % of global carbon emissions and destroys one of the world's most effective 'carbon sinks.'
Progress is being made on REDD in Cancun, Mexico at the COP16 Climate Conference where the UN Food and Agricultural Organization estimates that 500 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year could be prevented from reducing deforestation. At current prices for UN carbon offsets that’s worth ~ US $7.8 billion.
Some parties, such as Pablo Solon the chief climate envoy for Bolivia, have been referencing the ‘Rights of Nature’ and demanding that rich nations cut their carbon emissions more dramatically rather than relying on carbon offsets from developing nations.
“We won’t accept the REDD package if markets remain,” Pablo Solon has said. Indeed countries including Norway, the UK and France have pledged $4.6 billion to help developing nations protect forests in the absence of a UN carbon market.
However, as we stated in a previous post, the realities of the paradigm shift required as the global economy transforms to a 'renewable' and 'green' economy is clear and this will be driven by large and liquid environmental markets. Without a liquid market, the ‘hand out’ and ‘charity’ mentality that has funded conservation in the past will not deliver fundamental economic/environmental change.
“REDD is very ripe -- the package is more or less negotiated,” Brazilian Climate Change Ambassador Sergio Serra has said and Mexican environment Minister Juan Quesada has stated negotiations “have a very advanced level of progress.”
Regardless, the sentiment from developing nations is clear as stated by Pablo Solon, the chief climate envoy for Bolivia: “We want to save the forest, but not save developed countries from the responsibility to cut their emissions.”
See the video below, World Growth: REDD and Conservation: Avoiding the New Road to Surfdom, from the COP16 Climate Conference about deforestation drivers, conservation and factors influencing deforestation.
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