Generating carbon finance through avoided deforestation and its potential to create climatic, conservation and human development benefits.

ABSTRACT: Recent proposals to compensate developing countries for reducing emissions from deforestation (RED) under forthcoming climate change mitigation regimes are receiving increasing attention. Here we demonstrate that if RED credits were traded on international carbon markets, even moderate decreases in deforestation rates could generate billions of Euros annually for tropical forest conservation. We also discuss the main challenges for a RED mechanism that delivers real climatic benefits. These include providing sufficient incentives while only rewarding deforestation reductions beyond business-as-usual scenarios, addressing risks arising from forest degradation and international leakage, and ensuring permanence of emission reductions. Governance may become a formidable challenge for RED becau

SUBMITTER: Ebeling J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2610211 | biostudies-literature | 2008 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature