Negotiation

REDD+ stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, with the plus sign encompassing sustainable forest management and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks. It is a voluntary international framework under the UNFCCC that allows developing countries with tropical forests to receive results-based payments for measurably reducing deforestation and forest degradation compared to a reference level.

In practice, participating countries must establish a national forest monitoring system, set a forest reference emission level, and put in place safeguards to protect biodiversity, indigenous rights, and local livelihoods. They then report on the emissions reductions they have achieved, which are verified internationally before payments are released.

REDD+ has been a contentious issue in climate negotiations because it requires agreement on technically complex matters such as how to define forests, how to set reference levels, and how to ensure that reductions are real and permanent. Developed and developing countries have sometimes disagreed sharply over these technical and financial details.

Despite the challenges, REDD+ has channelled billions of dollars into forest conservation in countries including Brazil, Indonesia, and Democratic Republic of Congo. It remains one of the most promising tools available for reducing emissions from the land-use sector at the scale and speed required by the climate challenge.

COP stands for Conference of the Parties, the supreme decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Held annually, COP meetings bring together government delegations from nearly 200 countries to review implementation of the convention, negotiate new commitments, and make decisions on the rules governing international climate cooperation.

For forests, COP decisions have been transformative. It was through a series of COP decisions — from COP11 in Montreal in 2005 through to COP19 in Warsaw in 2013 — that the REDD+ mechanism was developed, refined, and given a comprehensive institutional framework. Each COP built on the previous decisions to address safeguards, monitoring, reference levels, and financing.

COP meetings also determine the flow of climate finance, including funding for forest conservation. Decisions on the Green Climate Fund, bilateral forest programmes, and the role of the private sector in forest carbon markets are all shaped by COP negotiations. Developing forest nations therefore have a strong stake in the outcomes of these meetings.

The political dynamics at COP meetings are complex. Coalitions of small island states, the European Union, developing country blocs, and large emerging economies all have different priorities and negotiating positions. The outcomes reflect a careful balance of these interests, which is why progress can sometimes appear slow relative to the urgency of the climate crisis.

Carbon trading allows entities — whether countries, companies, or projects — to buy and sell permits or credits that represent the right to emit a certain amount of greenhouse gases. In international forest agreements, carbon trading creates a mechanism through which the value of keeping forests standing can be monetised and used to finance conservation.

Under compliance carbon markets, regulated emitters in countries with emissions trading systems can in some cases purchase forest carbon credits to meet a portion of their reduction obligations. This links forest conservation directly to industrial decarbonisation and creates a potentially powerful incentive for forest protection at scale.

Article 6 of the Paris Agreement establishes a new international framework for carbon markets, including rules for internationally transferred mitigation outcomes. How forest credits from REDD+ are treated under this framework has been a major point of negotiation, with significant implications for the flow of finance to tropical forest nations.

Critics of forest carbon trading caution that poorly designed markets can allow continued emissions in the global North while promising reductions in the South that may not materialise. Robust monitoring, reporting, and verification systems, along with strong safeguards for communities and ecosystems, are considered essential preconditions for credible forest carbon markets.

The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997 and entering into force in 2005, was the first legally binding international agreement that committed industrialised countries to specific greenhouse gas reduction targets. It established several flexible mechanisms — including the Clean Development Mechanism, Joint Implementation, and Emissions Trading — to help countries meet their obligations cost-effectively.

For forests, the Kyoto Protocol had significant limitations. While afforestation and reforestation projects could generate carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism, activities to halt deforestation were excluded from the CDM. This meant there was no financial incentive under the Kyoto framework for developing countries to reduce emissions from destroying existing forests, which are far larger carbon stores than any replanting project.

The exclusion of avoided deforestation from Kyoto was a major gap that REDD+ was specifically designed to fill. Negotiations over the post-Kyoto framework placed reducing emissions from deforestation at the centre of discussions, recognising that no credible climate solution could ignore a source responsible for roughly 10 to 20 percent of global emissions.

The United States never ratified the Kyoto Protocol, which significantly weakened its political legitimacy and practical effectiveness. This history has informed efforts under the Paris Agreement to design a framework that engages all major emitters, including the US and developing countries, in a more politically durable architecture.

The Cancun Agreements, reached at COP16 in Mexico in December 2010, represented a significant step forward in international climate cooperation after the perceived disappointment of the Copenhagen summit in 2009. For forests specifically, Cancun formalised the REDD+ framework and established key decisions on safeguards, monitoring systems, and the phased approach to implementation.

The Cancun decision on REDD+ was notable for its inclusion of social and environmental safeguards that countries must respect and promote when implementing REDD+ activities. These safeguards addressed the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, biodiversity conservation, and the need for transparent governance — all issues that civil society organisations had pressed hard during negotiations.

Cancun also saw progress on climate finance, with the establishment of the Green Climate Fund and a commitment by developed countries to mobilise 100 billion dollars per year by 2020 for developing country climate action. Forest nations had a direct interest in this finance commitment as a potential source of funding for REDD+ implementation.

In the months leading up to Cancun, progress in countries like Indonesia on establishing national forest monitoring systems and developing REDD+ strategies was cited as evidence that a substantive agreement was achievable. This on-the-ground progress helped build confidence among negotiators that REDD+ was a workable mechanism and contributed to the positive outcome at COP16.