International Forest Carbon Initiative

Why we need the International Forest Carbon Initiative

Climate change is a global problem and it requires a global solution. If the international community is to solve this challenge, we need to make the most of every opportunity available to us. Among these opportunities, Australia believes that forests rank as an important and unique way to tackle the challenge. Deforestation of approximately 13 million hectares per year – around four times the size of Belgium – accounts for approximately 18 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the bulk of which come from developing countries. This is more than the world’s transport emissions put together.

Addressing this issue is commonly known as reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, or REDD.

Australia is working through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to secure a global outcome that comprehensively addresses emissions from deforestation, making forests part of the solution and no longer part of the problem. Key to this is agreeing a financial mechanism that provides developing countries, and their forest-dependent Indigenous and local communities, with a real incentive to conserve their forests and meet their economic and development aspirations. Developed countries like Australia have a crucial role to play in helping developing countries build the necessary capacity to participate in REDD and in supporting a REDD mechanism. Significant progress on REDD was made at Copenhagen, where the overarching outcome of the meeting – the Copenhagen Accord  – recognised the “crucial role” of REDD and agreed on the need to immediately establish a REDD mechanism.

How the International Forest Carbon Initiative works

Australia’s $273 million International Forest Carbon Initiative is a key contribution to global action on REDD. The Initiative is administered by the Australian Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and AusAID.

Through the Initiative, we are working in our region to help build capacity and provide momentum to support inclusion of REDD in a post-2012 global climate change agreement.

A central element of the Initiative is taking practical action on REDD through collaborative Forest Carbon Partnerships with Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. These Partnerships demonstrate how the technical and policy hurdles to REDD might be addressed and provide useful lessons learned to support international efforts under the UNFCCC to design a REDD financial mechanism.

What Australia is doing through the International Forest Carbon Initiative

Through the International Forest Carbon Initiative, Australia is:

Undertaking practical demonstration activities to show how REDD can be included in a post 2012 global climate change agreement.

This includes:

  • trialling a range of approaches, particularly in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, to demonstrate how investment in REDD can achieve emission reductions, while promoting livelihood options for forest-dependent Indigenous and local communities; and
  • assisting these countries to develop the underpinnings for regulatory, governance and law enforcement frameworks for REDD and to conserve and manage their forests sustainably.

Increasing international forest carbon monitoring and accounting capacity.

By demonstrating that forests can be monitored effectively through advanced remote sensing, Australia will show that there can be certainty in measuring emission reductions from REDD activities. Activities include:

  • directly assisting developing countries, in particular Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, to develop their own national forest carbon measurement systems; and
  • partnering with the Clinton Climate Initiative to assist developing countries to develop effective and efficient forest carbon measurement systems.

Supporting international efforts to develop market-based approaches to REDD.

Australia is playing a key role in international climate change forums and in working with other countries to promote the development of market-based approaches to REDD, including by:

  • taking a lead role in the negotiations under the UNFCCC on how incentives for REDD can be included in a post-2012 legally binding climate change agreement; and
  • supporting the World Bank in the further development and implementation of its Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and Forest Investment Program.

For more information on what Australia is doing through the Initiative see action under the International Forest Carbon Initiative.

Related initiatives

Detailed information on Australia’s international climate change policy positions is contained in our submissions to the UNFCCC.

Global Carbon Monitoring System.

Contacts

Email: communications@climatechange.gov.au