The future of forests
The Global Canopy Programme is covering the discussions in Bonn where the topic of avoiding deforestation is on the table. In a blog post called “Forests & the Future Climate Regime” they cite a speech by Johan Eliasch, the UK Prime Minister’s special representative on deforestation and clean energy, and Frances Seymour, Director-General of the Center for International Forestry Research, whose speech last month, “Forests in a future climate regime” argued that failure to curb deforestation will not only impact negatively on the global climate and on the health of the world’s forests, but will also have very negative effects for forest-dependent communities.
The Eliasch Review, published last year, showed that it would be possible to halve deforestation to 2030 at a cost of $17-33 billion per year, compared with the annual cost of $1 trillion by 2100 if deforestation is allowed to continue. Going beyond the Stern Review of 2006, the Eliasch Review came out strongly in favour of including emissions reductions from tackling deforestation (essentially, forest carbon ‘credits’) in international carbon trading markets such as the EU Emission Trading Scheme – over the long term.
Carbon Planet is passionate about REDD and has been working quietly on REDD projects for the last couple of years. See redd.carbonplanet.com for more details. — DS