Enabling Scaled and Predictable Private Sector Financing, alongside Public Support, is CRITICAL for success of REDD+

Code REDD is a proud supporter of IETA’s Declaration for a Balanced Approach to Financing and Implementing REDD+. Code REDD signed this declaration along with the Climate Markets and Investors Association (CMIA),  Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), and Global Canopy Programme (GCP).  At Code REDD, we aim to create a world where the REDD+ mechanism is widely adopted within private sector practices, corporate business models, and regulatory frameworks to drastically reduce deforestation, value ecosystem services, promote low carbon development, and enable a transition to the green economy. IETA’s declaration supports this vision, calling for public sector actions to promote private sector engagement in REDD+. It is this collaboration across all sectors that will advance REDD+ to the scale needed to drastically reduce deforestation and achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

Read the press release and the full declaration below.

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Business and Environment Groups Sign REDD+ Declaration

WARSAW (November 16, 2013) – On Saturday November 16, a number of groups representing business and environmental groups released a joint declaration addressing Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+). The Climate Markets and Investors Association (CMIA), Code REDD, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Global Canopy Programme (GCP), and International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) have stated the need for a balanced approach to financing REDD+ at a sufficient scale. It is a combination of market and non-market approaches, and private, public and philanthropic funding, that is needed.

IETA President and CEO Dirk Forrister commented, “We are delighted to have worked with like-minded groups representing a wide range of perspectives. We reached a consensus because REDD+ is in all of our interests. This declaration is a step towards finding a common and effective solution.”

Andrew Mitchell, Executive Director of the Global Canopy Programme (GCP) added, “Creating global demand for performance based REDD that can help reduce emissions from deforestation, is a critical challenge for this UN climate meeting. The recent IPCC report makes clear the critical role REDD+ can make to keep the world below 2 degrees. The value of supply chains causing deforestation exceeds US$100 billion per year, yet Governments have so far committed just US$ 1 billion per year to finance REDD+. This Declaration calls for a significant upgrade in action by Governments and the private sector to combat deforestation as the most cost effective and viable means of mitigating climate change in the next decade.”

“REDD+ has the opportunity to transform lives and provide a transition to the green economy”, noted Karin Burns, Executive Director of Code REDD. “The establishment of a REDD+ carbon market would provide a real opportunity for collaboration across all sectors on meaningful climate change solutions. We are committed to working with our fellow signatories to creating lasting change through REDD+.”

“Any realistic plan to reduce global warming pollution sufficiently — and in time — to avoid dangerous consequences must rely in part on preserving tropical forests. This will require a diverse set of funding sources, including market-based, non-market and other private and public finance, in order to sustainably cut emissions, protect ecosystems, and provide economic development at large scale,” said Stephan Schwartzman, director of Tropical Forest Policy at Environmental Defense Fund.

The REDD+ Declaration can be downloaded by clicking here.

About the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA): IETA has been the leading voice of the business community on the subject of carbon markets since 2000. IETA’s 140 member companies include some of the world’s leading corporations, including global leaders in oil, electricity, cement, aluminum, chemical, paper, and other industrial sectors; as well as leading firms in the data verification and certification, brokering and trading, legal, finance, and consulting industries.