A Mechanism That Focuses on Climate Change Improvement by Reducing Emissions - Essay Example

Environmental Law REDD+ means reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation “plus” preservation through management of forests and development of forest carbon stocks. A mechanism that focuses on climate change improvement by reducing emissions from forest through the provision of incentives for developing countries to discourage deforestation and investment in low carbon paths for sustainable development. Angelsen et al. explain that the REDD+ mechanism guarantees several benefits like improving climate change situation, preserving biodiversity and supporting of livelihoods. The two main mechanisms utilized by REDD+ is carbon trading and paying for the management of forests. REDD+ pays developing countries to manage forests by discouraging deforestation or forest degradation. The funding, which is through, carbon trading involves industrialised countries providing funds to developing countries that compensate for their own emissions. This compensation explains the idea behind carbon trading. REDD+ mechanism also involves starting up trust funds to support the forest conservation strategy. The shift on focus to REDD+ is because this is a cheap method when compared to other mitigation strategies such as carbon capture (Angelsen et al., 2009). Deforestation has directly influenced the change in global climate. Human activities such as industrialization and agricultural activities have contributed to the growing need for deforestation especially in the developing countries. The tropical forests in developing countries are cleared to create land for agricultural expansion, pastureland, and for the development of infrastructure. The food and agricultural organisation approximated the rate of occurrence of deforestation was at 13 million hectares per year. Environmentalists explain that tropical deforestation is a chief cause of biodiversity loss. Deforestation also influences the global climate because it accounts for about 20% of the annual green house gas emissions (Angelsen et al., 2009). REDD+ faces both political and technical challenges in the process of implementing their projects. These challenges are a barrier to the recognition of REDD+ by the Kyoto protocol. There is an argument that industrialised countries are using REDD+ as a means of avoiding their domestic responsibility to cut carbon dioxide emissions. This argument is a challenge in promoting REDD+ as a forest conservation strategy and a cheap means for reducing the emission of green house gases. On the other hand, there are concerns that REDD+ negatively affects forest dependent communities by weakening their land and resource rights. This way of thinking also supports the argument, that REDD+ is a threat to agriculture in that it will affect the supply of food and other agricultural products. Such ideologies threaten to prevent the implementation of the REDD+ projects. The other challenge faced by REDD+ is the rigorous criteria demanded by the environmental society for the project to be rated as an effective mitigation mechanism. For example, REDD+ need to avoid leakage, which means it is necessary for REDD+ to prevent shifting of deforestation to other areas once they initiate conservation in other areas. The REDD+ projects need to provide a monitoring strategy that reflects on the progress of the project in the reduction of greenhouse emissions (Angelsen et al., 2009) To be able to support the REDD+ strategies, different countries have come up with legislations that ensure the policies and measures’ prioritized by REDD+ strategies are implemented. Countries have also come up with a criterion that decides how national REDD+ funds are nationally distributed. Countries like Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia emphasis on the importance of involving the legislators in the implementation of REDD+ strategies. The legislators will play an enormous role in scrutinizing government policies and budget in reducing emissions from deforestation. Different countries have come up with policies that ensure the REDD+ finances are managed in a transparent and equitable method. The Brazilian government, for instance, has a policy that ensures the local communities and indigenous people are rewarded for participating in the protection of tropical forests. This policy will be successful in involving the government and local communities in the conservation process. Argentina in an effort to protect its forest came up with a tax policy issued on agricultural products this aids in the fight against deforestation. The country seeks alternative ways will help in limiting industrial soybean production, which accounts for 70% of deforestation in the country. It is evident that many countries agree that addressing the agricultural sector in their REDD+ readiness plans will help in implementing REDD+ goals successfully. It is crucial for countries to consider research as a means of coming up with better ways to produce enough food and biomass in an equitable and sustainable way (Angelsen et al., 2009). The funds run acquired from REDD+ funding aims at financially supporting such research initiatives that seek to improve the environment. The Kyoto protocol is an international agreement that commits 37 industrialised countries to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions. There national measures set to ensure targets set by individual countries are achieved. The Kyoto mechanism for stabilising carbon emissions is through emission trading, clean development mechanism and joint implementation mechanism. The developed countries are to reduce their total emissions by 5% starting from 2008-2012. The change in emission will be compared to the 1990 levels. Developing countries contribute to the climate change mitigation by participating in the clean development mechanism. According to the Kyoto protocol, developed countries can create emission offsets by supporting environmental conservation causes such as discouraging deforestation in developing countries. This plan seeks to sequester carbon in forests. However, the Kyoto protocol has excluded forest conservation from its projects. However, there are plans to include forest conservation in the next commitment period of the protocol this will help in reducing global emissions. The Kyoto protocol allows plantation projects such as afforestation and reforestation (Moutinho, Santili, Schwartzman & Rodriguez, 2009). REDD+ mechanism targets to formulate cost effective approaches to meet their environment conservation plans. REDD+ mechanism lobbies for the inclusion of forest conservation in international environmental law as a way of mitigating climate change. The key areas supported by REDD+ mechanism include prevention of deforestation, prevention of forest degradation, sustainable forest management and reforestation. REDD+ depends on funding from industrialised countries for the implementation of its strategies, which are set to commence upon the expiration of the Kyoto protocol in 2013. REDD+ seeks to achieve its goals by creating a financial value to the carbon stored in forest, advocate for investment in low carbon paths for sustainable development. The success of REDD+ mechanism depends on the full participation of forest dependent communities, legislators of the countries that seek to protect the rain forest and the leaders of industrialised countries. It is vital for the activities in developing countries to complement those of developed countries in the plan to reduce carbon gases. A combined effort from the developed and developing countries will be a success in addressing the climate change issue (Angelsen et al., 2009). References Angelsen, A., Brown, S., Loisel, C., Peskett, L., Streck, C. and Zarin, D. (2009). Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+): An option assessment report. Norway, NO: Meridian institute. Moutinho, P., Santili, M., Schwartzman, S., and Rodriguez, L. (2009). Why ignore tropical Deforestation? A proposal for including forest conservation in the Kyoto protocol. Retrieved 25 November, 2012, from http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0413e/a0413E06.htm Read More