This alternative approach has already been proposed to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by the Bolivian government on the basis of the conclusions of the 2010 World People’s Conference on Climate Change and Rights of Mother Earth. The seeds of change have already been sown. Now it is time to ditch risky REDD for known community approaches that are effective, ethical and equitable.
California wants to approve the incorporation of REDD+ offsets in its carbon cap-and-trade programme without hearing from the parties that would be affected by REDD+ activities.
The REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation+) program, which allows Northern polluters to purchases forest carbon offset credits from the global South, has been included in transnational negotiations on climate change and lowering greenhouse emissions.
While California can play an important role in protecting tropical forests, developing a REDD+ offsets program risks wasting finite resources on a policy mechanism that will be inefficient, ineffective and possibly harm the lives and livelihoods of indigenous peoples and local communities.
The State of California is poised to become the first cap and trade market to accept forest carbon offset credits for compliance purposes. This briefing paper details the related problems and risks.
The Social and Environmental Principles and Criteria (SEPC) and corresponding risk assessment tools threaten to undermine work undertaken thus far and risk creating a race to the bottom in global REDD standards.
The United Nations’ negotiations on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation – REDD+ – has become increasingly central in global discussions on climate change. This paper takes on ten misconceptions about the suitability of carbon mar