India’s funding proposal for protection and regeneration of forests under the new global climate change agreement has got support from a new UN report, which has called for a forest carbon deal.
Forestry proposals fall broadly under acronyms like REDD, REDD-Plus or REDD Readiness categories. While REDD is for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation and claiming carbon offsets for selling to industrialised countries, REDD-Plus is for getting credits even for afforestation, reforestation, and effective conservation. About 15 countries are reported to support these proposals. Forestry can be an important climate change solution because 20% of the global greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to be from deforestation.
Calling for investing in ecological infrastructure, the report has said that reward benefits should be through payments and markets for ecosystem services schemes, ranging from local water provisioning to global REDD-Plus proposal. The report, an Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity (TEEB) initiative and hosted by the UNEP, was released in Brussels on Friday.
“Since there is no free lunch, this potential market needs global support to take off. Enabling global and national policies are needed to usher in an ecologically sustainable economy,” TEEBs study leader Pavan Sukhdev told FE over phone. “Our economic model, which is consumption-led, production-driven, and GDP-measured needs environ- mentally-correct reforms to address fuel, food and financial crisis. We need to move from a brown carbon to a green carbon regime,” he added.
Saying that there is a need to recognise that protected areas are a cornerstone of conservation policies and provide multiple benefits, the report says, Investing $45 billion in protected areas could secure vital nature-based services worth some $5 trillion a year, including the sequestration of carbon, the protection and enhancement of water resources and protection against flooding. Besides, there are employment incentives.
Its in line with what Indian environment ministry has been saying. The ministry has estimated that Indias forest cover offsets 11.23% of the countrys greenhouse gas emissions on a baseline of 1994. If carbon dioxide is valued conservatively at $5 per tonne, the forest sink is worth $120 billion, or Rs 6,00,000 crore. It will keep on going up by $1.2billion annually, or Rs 6,000 crore at $7 per tonne.
Looking beyond finances, the UN report also calls for reforming environmentally harmful subsidies, addressing losses through regulation and pricing, halting deforestation and forest degradation, protecting tropical coral reefs, saving and restoring global fisheries, and recognising the deep link between ecosystem degradation and the persistence of rural poverty.
The reports timing is significant because it comes just ahead of the UN climate convention meeting in Copenhagen, which is expected to take a decision on REDD and REDD-Plus.
Source: The Financial Express
Publiahed on 14 November 2009