Potential for Carbon Finance .pdf

Carbon finance for the reduction of emissions from the land use sector is currently at the top of the global agenda and being promoted vigorously as a core mitigation strategy for global climate change. In particular ‘reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation’ (REDD), in which developing countries are compensated for improved protection of existing forests, has emerged as a central component of the global climate protection regime currently being negotiated to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Decisions taken in December 2007 in Bali, at the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP 13) put into motion a process aimed towards achieving an agreement on REDD by COP 15 in Copenhagen in December 2009. The possibility of significant international transfers of funds under a post-Kyoto agreement to finance emission reductions from the land use sector has attracted the attention of policy makers and the public within developing countries, with significant interest recently from countries within the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region.