Group - Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation

REDD stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) . REDD mechanisms use market/financial incentives to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases from deforestation and forest degradation. While initially excluded from the land use, land-use change and forestry sector within the UNFCCC Clean Development Mechanism it is suspected to be part of the successor to the Kyoto Protocol . REDD credits offer the opportunity to utilise funding from developed countries to reduce deforestation in developing countries. Considering that approximately 17% of greenhouse gas emissions originate from deforestation and forest degradation, it is increasingly accepted that mitigation of climate change will not be achieved without the inclusion of forests in an international regime. At the 2007 Bali UNFCCC meeting in 2007, an agreement was reached on “the urgent need to take further meaningful action to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation”. The deadline for reaching an agreement on the specifics of an international REDD mechanism, at least as regards to it being implemented in the short and medium term , is the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP-15) which will be held in Copenhagen in December 2009.