The landmark approval of a carbon accounting methodology to underpin REDD projects in Asia shows the project-based voluntary carbon market leading the way in the development of mechanisms to halt the destruction of climate-critical tropical forests.
In the drive to tackle climate change, carbon trading has become the policy instrument of choice among governments. It is also a central element of the UNFCCC’s Kyoto Protocol. National or regional carbon trading schemes are now operational in Europe, the USA, New Zealand and elsewhere.
LOMPICO - PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric's) is handing over tens of thousands of dollars to the nonprofit Sempervirens Fund to protect a 425-acre stand of redwoods once slated for logging deep in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The deal, expected to be completed next month, is part of the utility's efforts to combat greenhouse gas emissions, in this case safeguarding trees for carbon absorption, and is helping to drive a new marketplace where people and business are offered an incentive to offset pollution.
In a previous article we discussed the importance of the UN-REDD Programme as well as the obstacles to its further implementation. Recognizing the impact that the retreat of the tropical forests is having on global warming, the United Nations launched the UN-REDD Programme, Reduced Emissions from Degradation and Destruction in 2008 to help support countries REDD+
At the close of calendar year 2009, the Prototype Carbon Fund has 23 of 24 projects generating emission reductions and eight of the PCF’s CDM projects have issued Certified Emission Reductions. In early 2010, the PCF successfully completed its first transfer of Kyoto assets from its projects in Annex I countries.
Fund Capital ($ million) 219.8
Date Operational April 2000
Participants 22
Private % (by capital invested) 57.6
In New Zealand, where the sheep outnumber humans 9 to 1 and National Lamb Day is celebrated every Feb. 15, a carbon emission trading system that kicked off in July is upending the economics of sheep farming, a once crucial sector of the economy. Sheep farmers are walking away from the business of selling wool and lamb chops and are converting their grazing lands into tree farms that could prove valuable when the country's agricultural sector is forced to pay for greenhouse gas emissions starting in 2015.
