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Reaching an international agreement on an instrument to<br />
Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation<br />
(REDD) – with emphasis on a REDD-Plus variant<br />
that can further incorporate conservation, sustainable<br />
management of forests and enhancement of carbon<br />
stocks – would properly reward the global carbon<br />
sequestration and storage services, as well as help to<br />
maintain other valuable services provided by forests.<br />
Given the considerable amounts of emission reduction<br />
needed, not acting to halt deforestation is not an option;<br />
forests are part of the solution for the climate change crisis.<br />
Expanding REDD to REDD-Plus can increase the mitigation<br />
potential (Zarin et al. 2009), not least because of<br />
the restoration potential of degraded forests: REDD<br />
would only halt further degradation – not incentivise<br />
restoration. Forest protection and restoration also generate<br />
a whole range of co-benefits which – if valued explicitly<br />
– improve the cost-effectiveness ratio of forest carbon<br />
investments (Paterson et al. 2008; Galatowitsch 2009).<br />
A REDD-Plus instrument could create a revenue stream<br />
attractive to national and regional governments, cost-effective<br />
for industrial polluters seeking options to meet their<br />
emission reduction targets and potentially beneficial to<br />
local communities and the rural poor (see Chapter 5). The<br />
approach could be further extended to cover similar services<br />
provided by soils, peatlands and other ecosystems<br />
to fully address greenhouse gasses emissions from land<br />
use changes.<br />
RESPONDING TO THE VALUE OF NATURE<br />
Box 10.9: The ‘colours of carbon’<br />
• ‘Brown carbon’: industrial emissions of greenhouse gases that affect the climate.<br />
• ‘Green carbon’: carbon stored in terrestrial ecosystems e.g. plant biomass, soils,<br />
wetlands and pasture and increasingly recognised as a key item for negotiation in the<br />
UNFCCC (in relation to forest carbon and mechanisms such as REDD, REDD-Plus, or LULUCF).<br />
• ‘Blue carbon’: carbon bound in the world’s oceans. An estimated 55% of all carbon in living<br />
organisms is stored in mangroves, marshes, sea grasses, coral reefs and macro-algae.<br />
• ‘Black carbon’: formed through incomplete combustion of fuels and may be significantly<br />
reduced if clean burning technologies are employed.<br />
Past mitigation efforts concentrated on brown carbon, sometimes leading to land conversion for biofuel<br />
production which inadvertently increased emissions from green carbon. By halting the loss of green and<br />
blue carbon, the world could mitigate as much as 25% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with<br />
co-benefits for biodiversity, food security and livelihoods (IPCC 2007, Nellemann et al. 2009).<br />
This will only be possible if mitigation efforts accommodate all four carbon colours.<br />
Source: <strong>TEEB</strong> Climate Issues Update 2009:14; Nellemann et al. 2009<br />
We also need to prepare for the climate change that<br />
will happen despite mitigation policies. This will require<br />
much more investment in adaptation than is<br />
currently planned (Parry et al. 2009; <strong>TEEB</strong>-CIU 2009).<br />
A cost-effective part of an adaptation strategy will be<br />
based on broader investments in ecological infrastructure<br />
(see below): protecting against natural<br />
hazards helps to decrease society’s vulnerability and<br />
cushion the impacts of global warming. Policy-makers<br />
need to develop strategies that recognise these risks<br />
Box 10.10: REDD (Reducing Emissions from<br />
Deforestation and Forest Degradation)<br />
The proposed REDD instrument is based on<br />
payment for carbon storage ecosystem services<br />
and could lead to an estimated halving of deforestation<br />
rates by 2030, cutting emissions by 1.5-2.7<br />
Gt CO2 per year. The estimated costs range from<br />
US$ 17.2 billion to US$ 33 billion/year whilst the<br />
estimated long-term net benefit of this action in<br />
terms of reduced climate change is estimated at<br />
US$ 3.7 trillion in present value terms (Eliasch<br />
2008). Delaying action on REDD would reduce<br />
its benefits dramatically: waiting 10 more years<br />
could reduce the net benefit of halving deforestation<br />
by US$ 500 billion (see Chapter 5).<br />
Sources: Eliasch 2008; McKinsey 2008<br />
<strong>TEEB</strong> FOR NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL POLICY MAKERS - CHAPTER 10: PAGE 14