IPCC Pachauri hints at possible deforestation deal

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in a Reuters article, says talks in Copenhagen will likely go to the wire. That is obvious. Any possible deal will come late in the evening of December 18th, but even more likely in the early morning hours of the 19th.

What was most interesting about his interview was the notion that...

"Apart from possible deals on emission cuts by rich nations and finance for actions by developing countries to fight global warming, Pachauri said the world could also ink a pact to avoid deforestation.".

Given that REDD is far advanced ahead of other sectors in the UNFCCC process, given that international forest carbon is a major component of both House and Senate US legislation, and given the Governor's Climate Summits have a separate track for climate and forests, a deforestation deal would be the natural item that governments should be able to get across the line. The question is whether you can have a mechanism that uses carbon markets to arrest deforestation if the carbon markets themselves are not solved.

The original article is hyper-linked in the blog title.