The Cancun Agreements

The Global Canopy Programme’s (GCP) team recently returned from the UN Climate Meeting in Cancun, Mexico, and wanted to give you a sense of what happened. Crucially for forests, a decision has been reached on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) under the Conference of the Parties (COP), transforming REDD from a discussion point into a global mitigation mechanism, formally recognized by the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The REDD agreement provides a framework to create national and sub-national strategies to reduce deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, urges developed country Parties to provide financial and technical support for them to meet these goals, and provides references to safeguards for environmental and social integrity.

In Copenhagen last year, governments set a funding target of USD 100 billion per year by 2020 for climate change mitigation and adaptation measures and pledged a total of USD 30 billion in ‘fast start finance' for the period 2010 - 2012. According to the UN REDD Programme’s latest press release, USD 5 billion of fast start finance has been set aside for REDD related activities. Meanwhile, a parallel government initiative, the REDD+ Partnership, which was established earlier this year to coordinate REDD efforts, met again in Cancun and agreed their work plan for the year ahead.

Supporting the momentum of forests, a major meeting organised by Jeff Horowitz of Avoided Deforestation Partners in the US made it clear that the issue of deforestation and forest degradation has now become mainstream. The event was opened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and was followed by a star-studded panel including President Jagdeo of Guyana, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of Norway, Head of the Indonesian President's Delivery Unit for REDD Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, a special representative of President Obama, and the billionaire investor George Soros. All of these speakers made it clear that action on reducing tropical deforestation was one of, if not the highest priority for the climate change agenda between now and 2020.

No one should be in any doubt that considerable momentum has now built up around REDD. Bob Zoellick, President of the World Bank said “…REDD+ is a winner: it’s key to climate change mitigation and is one of the best chances to save our tropical forests and the people and animals that depend on them.” A broader message is also emerging, that this is not just about carbon but about sustaining the wider benefits of biodiversity and the huge ecosystem services it provides to humanity. Watch this space in the future as it opens up the far wider opportunity of incorporating the use of natural capital into the true costs of consumerism worldwide, a subject likely to inspire major action at the Rio + 20 meeting in Brazil in 2012.

Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, Linda Adams, along with the Governor of Chiapas State, Hon. Juan Sabines Guerrero, and Steve Kline, VP Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation, followed with plans for the first REDD+ compliance market between Chiapas and the Brazilian State of Acre indicating that action at the State level is possible despite the slow pace of international negotiations. Chairman of Walmart, Rob Walton, spoke alongside Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, highlighting the importance of managing supply chain impacts on deforestation and in reducing emissions. “Walmart has made a commitment to sustainably source palm oil on private label products in the next three years, and we will only source Brazilian beef from sustainably sourced farms,” Walton said. (See: http://adpartners.org/news_cancun.html).

Despite the challenges ahead, the forest community can allow itself a little smile to welcome the Cancun Agreements. REDD+ now has momentum and those who decide to invest in it in the future have a clearer framework. This is remarkable progress when just a few years ago forests were not even part of the climate negotiation process at all. Looking ahead, the coming year will be crucial for the future of the Climate Convention as the hard decisions on financing mechanisms and the overall future legal framework will be battled out on the road to COP 17, in Durban, South Africa.