Good overview again on REDD talks by IISD

IISD covers the negotiations better than any other group. You can read about developments on REDD in the AWG LCA meeting held on Tuesday April 7, in the LCA contact group on technology and finance (click on title). IISD will release its final summary of the talks tomorrow (Saturday).

Pictured is Kevin Conrad, of PNG and the Coalition for Rainforest Nations talking with Jonathan Pershing, the second highest US diplomat on climate change. Photo credit IISD.

AWG LCA calls for more negotiating sessions

Bonn Climate Change Talks March 2009
Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action
under the Convention (AWG-LCA 5)
Bonn, Germany 8 April 2009.


The Chair has called for new talks in 10-14 August (in Bonn) and 2-6 November (place TBA).

Ecudaor asks US's Jonathan Pershing on REDD

In a LCA workshop today, Ecuador asked the United States how they saw REDD fitting into an overall package. Jonathan Pershing (the top diplomat here at the talks) answered by saying (I am paraphrasing as he speaks) "...we know forestry contributes up to 20%. It is hard to imagine a global solution...to get to an 80% reduction in greenhouse gases if we keep 20% of emissions off the table.. and we are actively exploring opportunities in this area with many countries...to address drivers of deforestation...and this clearly relates to the REDD discussions. "

Greenpeace slams REDD, claims it will benefit Mobil-Exxon

Greenpeace, which has long opposed REDD (for ten years) held an incredible side event. You should watch the event yourself, but in essence, they rolled out a scientist and a modeler and concluded:

1) The Amazon will probably Die-back anyway from climate change, and therefore any REDD credits are not permanent.

2) REDD would swamp the market, causing a drop of 75% in the carbon price.

3) REDD would only benefit Mobil-Exxon. I swear, I'm not kidding.

On the first point, the scientist failed to note that all credible atmosphere-biosphere models show the Amazon doing just fine until 2050 and only one (the very challenged Hadley Model) showing an Amazon Die-Back. If you watch the presentation by the scientist, you would have a hard time concluding what Greenpeace did, but Greenpeace has never been one to follow facts carefully.

On the second point, many other more credible models have shown that REDD is likely to have a modest impact on prices. See EDF's report here. The modeling that Greenpeace commissioned only looked at one year in 2020, did not allow banking, and had every possible assumption to make the REDD credits look as ominous as possible.

In other bizarre twists, the workshop at one point said that Africa's REDD credits would be the largest impact on swamping the market, and then later said that it would be unlikely that Africa could actually implement REDD due to limited capacity.