REDD+ Partnership: Brazil/France Proposed Plan of Action

The new chairs of the REDD+ Partnership posted a new proposed work plan on February 18, 2011.

U.S. REDD+ Fast Track in peril with DC budget debate

Eric Haxthausen, U.S. climate policy director for The Nature Conservancy, has a good blog hyperlinked in the blog title. It is briefly cited below:

It is a busy week on the Hill, between the release of President Barack Obama’s budget proposal and the debate in Congress about H.R. 1, the U.S. House of Representatives’ bill to provide funding for federal programs for the rest of the current fiscal year. Current funding for the federal government runs out on March 4, so the next two weeks is shaping up as a showdown between the parties on the country’s fiscal course.

One important element that might get lost in all of the public discussion is this: H.R. 1 would slash U.S. direct foreign assistance and support for multilateral institutions. The total funding of these programs amounts to less than 1 percent of the federal budget, but they play a critical role in protecting U.S. security, contributing to a strong economy, providing stability in many countries, and preserving the U.S. as a strong global partner.

New social media tool for reporting deforestation

DeforLeaks provides a platform for any concerned individual anywhere in the world to report on deforestation events and/or their impacts on wildlife and humans. DeforLeaks shares your stories and contributions with the wider environmental and conservation community through its social media network.

Ban Ki-moon signals lowered expectations for climate deal

This announcement confirms what many have felt since Copenhagen - the world will not reach an overarching pact like the KP in the near term. With "Plan A" out-the-window, "Plan B" is emerging as a series of loosely coordinated gestures and smaller incremental gains. For REDD+, this will mean bundling and coordinating a UNFCCC REDD+ Mechanism (hopefully some day), the GCF, California's sectoral cap-and-trade rules, commodity roundtables, and leveraging public funds for long-term reductions. Hopefully down the road we can stitch it all back together...

VCS issues 1st REDD credits to Wildlife Works!

Kenyan Carbon Project Earns First-Ever Voluntary REDD Credits.

CIFOR's Lou Verchot: REDD+ Dance Analysis

The analysis hyperlinked in the blog title is a solid overview, although TFG does not quite have the same take on Cancun. While there was remarkable progress in Cancun on REDD+, negotiators fell short of creating an actual REDD+ Mechanism. There was agreement on key parts of REDD+ and decisions to consider other mechanisms, but for now we still have no actual entity within the UNFCCC on REDD+ that can start operating.

Lou is right that more and more pieces are falling into place. The decisions in Cancun were a very good indication the UNFCCC will eventually do something soon on REDD+, provided either larger issues (legal nature, commitments, MRV, finance) can be resolved or REDD+ gets some blessing to move ahead without a total package (as happened with the Adaptation Committee and the Green Climate Fund in the Cancun Agreements).

The latest version (with apparently still a few typos) of the Cancun Agreements are here:

http://unfccc.int/files/meetings/cop_16/application/pdf/cop16_lca.pdf

VCS nested REDD+Initiative

CAR's nested REDD+protocol process in Mexico

CAR's Mexico Forest Project Protocol

The Climate Action Reserve (Reserve) is developing a Forest Project Protocol for use throughout Mexico. The Mexico protocol will be based on the U.S. Forest Project Protocol and will include guidance for the types of projects covered under the U.S. version of the Forest Project Protocol: Reforestation, Avoided Deforestation (Avoided Conversion), and Sustainable Forest Management (Improved Forest Management). Development of all three project types will be conducted contemporaneously, with initial efforts focused on areas of shared application.

Reserve staff will work with the Mexico forest workgroup (see below) to refine the Forest Project Protocol for use in Mexico by developing guidance and standards for nested projects within a REDD framework, environmental integrity, land tenure issues, and permanence of forest carbon sequestration specific to projects in Mexico.