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Eight Reasons for California to Lead on Climate and Tropical
Forests

Thank you for the opportunity to share views and express support
for including sectoral offset credits for reducing emissions from
deforestation and forest degradation under the California
cap-and-trade program.

When it comes to fighting climate change, California is already a
world leader on pricing carbon, transitioning to renewable energy,
and decarbonizing the world’s eighth largest economy.  California
now has yet another golden opportunity to lead on climate by
helping to halt and reverse tropical deforestation.

Here are eight reasons for California to accelerate inclusion of
sectoral offset credits for tropical forests:

1. To fight climate change comprehensively. 

Climate change is bad enough for Californians facing drought and
sea-level rise. It’s many times worse for people in poor countries
who are more exposed and less able to adapt. Fighting climate
change by regulating smokestacks and tailpipes is essential, but
there’s no chance of avoiding dangerous climate change without also
halting and reversing deforestation. Every year tropical
deforestation produces more greenhouse gas emissions than the
European Union.

2. To contain costs. 

Reducing tropical deforestation is a bargain. Relative to
California, tropical forests offer 55 times as many emission
reductions below twenty dollars per ton of carbon dioxide. By
letting regulated companies purchase these low-cost emission
reductions to meet a fraction of their climate obligations,
California can meet its ambitious climate goals at a lower cost to
companies and their customers.

3. To be the standard-setter for the world. 

What California decides will have an outsized importance for the
world’s tropical forests that goes well beyond the emission
reductions its companies might buy each year. California can write
rules that set the precedent for other US states and even other
developed countries on how to use tropical forest offsets in
cap-and-trade programs in a way that guarantees environmental
integrity and benefits indigenous peoples, the best guardians of
tropical forests.  Just as with clean air laws a generation ago,
California once again has the chance to be the standard-setter for
the world.

4. Because there are side benefits for sustainable development. 

Deforestation isn’t just bad for the climate, it’s bad for people
living near and within the forests. Brazil’s deforestation has been
blamed for its record-setting drought; Indonesia’s massive and
deliberately-set forest and peat fires are choking Southeast Asia
with a thick carcinogenic haze, causing a public health emergency. 
By financing forest protection in the tropics, California will be
contributing to Global Sustainable Development Goals on poverty
alleviation, food, water and sanitation, health, and energy. And
since tropical forests are home to two-thirds of all plant and
animal species that live on land, California will be helping to
achieve international agreements on biodiversity too.

5. Because it’s a tested model. 

National performance payments for conserving forests have been
tested using public funding, and they’re working.  Brazil’s
anti-deforestation policies reduced Amazon deforestation by 80%
over the last decade—the single largest reduction in greenhouse gas
emissions ever achieved by any county. In return Norway contributed
one billion dollars into the Amazon Fund.

6. To support indigenous peoples. 

Evidence to date suggests that performance payments for conserving
forests can benefit indigenous peoples. Brazil has increased
indigenous territories to an area larger than Greenland. Guyana has
accelerated titling of indigenous lands. And in Indonesia, a court
decision recognized indigenous peoples’ claims to 40 million
hectares of forest.

7. Because technical issues are surmountable. 

The Air Resources Board white paper lists a number of technical
issues, such as monitoring, reference levels, and social
safeguards. These issues are important but surmountable. Many good
ideas for addressing these issues have been put forward in the last
decade, including by the REDD Offsets Working Group, the
Methodological Framework of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility
Carbon Fund, the Verified Carbon Standard Jurisdictional and Nested
REDD+ Framework, and bilateral REDD+ agreements. A new working
group report by the Center for Global Development recommends
keeping rules simple and practical.

8. Because finance is the missing piece. 

Climate diplomats have finished negotiating global rules for paying
for reductions in emissions in deforestation. These rules are
expected to become part of an international climate agreement in
Paris this December.  More than 50 tropical countries are lining up
to reduce deforestation, if funding for performance payments comes
forward. California can jumpstart action in those countries by
sending the signal that market finance is on the way.

By including sectoral offsets for reducing emissions from
deforestation and forest degradation in its cap-and-trade program,
California will open up a new source of finance to help tropical
countries conserve their forests, with many attendant benefits for
climate and sustainable development.

Yet again, California has a golden opportunity to lead.

Jonah Busch, Ph.D.
Center for Global Development
2055 L St, Fifth Floor
Washington, DC 20009

References: 

“Eight Reasons for California to Lead on Climate and Tropical
Forests.” Jonah Busch. Center for Global Development Blog. October
27th, 2015.
http://www.cgdev.org/blog/eight-reasons-california-lead-climate-and-tropical-forests


Further reading: 

“Look to the Forests: How Performance Payments Can Slow Climate
Change.” Report of the Working Group on Scaling Up
Performance-Based Transfers for Reduced Tropical Deforestation.
Center for Global Development, Washington, DC. 74 pp. October 14th,
2015.
http://www.cgdev.org/publication/ft/look-forests-how-performance-payments-can-slow-climate-change


“Why Forests? Why Now? Paper Series.” Frances Seymour and Jonah
Busch. Center for Global Development, Washington, DC.
http://www.cgdev.org/page/wfwn-paper-series