The United Nations climate agreement may encourage billions of dollars of private investment in protecting forests by allowing for emissions savings to be more accurately measured, according to the Tropical Forest Group lobby.
A group of envoys representing 193 nations agreed on a plan to protect forests, known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or REDD. Rates of tree-felling, or deforestation, will be measured and financing established for projects in developing nations that use plants to soak up carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for climate change.
“These decisions include clear signals that investing in tropical forest conservation will one day pay off,” John Niles, director of San Diego-based Tropical Forest Group, said today in an e-mailed statement. “Technical steps, agreed to by all nations, are essential for accurately calculating emissions reductions.”
Cutting down forests is associated with about a fifth of global carbon-dioxide emissions. Living trees absorb carbon dioxide while growing and emit it when they decompose or are burned.
The UN decision on protecting forests is a “big breakthrough,” said Abyd Karmali, global head of carbon markets at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and president of the Carbon Markets & Investors Association, the industry lobby group. “Recognition of the importance of sub-national activities and strong safeguard provisions are both good.”
The deal didn’t mention how the forest protections would be paid for. The “lack of specifics on finance including future use of carbon markets is a concern,” Karmali said. “There was near consensus about the important role that markets could play in the longer-term.”
Carbon markets could be used by accrediting emissions saved from forest protection with tradable credits.
Forests are often cut down and cleared for agricultural use to raise animals and grow crops. World Growth, a lobby group that advocates globalization, said the plan may cause food prices to rise.
