REDD-Monitor’s round-up of the week’s news on forests, climate change, REDD, and natural climate solutions. For regular updates, follow @reddmonitor on Twitter.
Continue readingA new threat to the Maasai in Ngorongoro District of Tanzania
Over the past decade, Indigenous Maasai communities living in Ngorongoro District in Tanzania have faced a series of violent evictions. The government recently announced that more evictions are planned, under a proposal to divide the Ngorongoro Conservation Area into four zones.
REDD in Guyana: Elite agendas, political temporalities, and the politics of environmental policy failure
In 2009, Norway launched Guyana’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation programme. Back then, it was an amibitious US$250 million scheme. Ten years later Guyana’s REDD has been almost completely abandoned.
Continue readingGreen Finance Observatory: Five major problems with natural climate solutions
Recently, the so-called “forgotten solution” of natural climate solutions has been widely promoted. More than 150 nature-based solutions were announced at the recent UN Climate Action Summit in New York.
Continue readingThe Sengwer walk for justice and to ask for recognition of their land rights in the Embobut Forest, Kenya
This weekend, about 150 Sengwer Indigenous People walked to Nairobi to deliver a petition to President Uhuru Kenyatta. The petition, signed by 270,000 people, requests recognition of their land rights in the Embobut Forest.
Continue readingREDD in the news: 30 September – 6 October 2019
REDD-Monitor’s round-up of the week’s news on forests, climate change, REDD, and natural climate solutions. For regular updates, follow @reddmonitor on Twitter.
Continue readingRemember the headlines: Tree planting is our “most effective climate change solution”? Well, it would take 200 years, and we can only plant 10% of the area, says Tom Crowther of ETH-Zürich
“The restoration of trees remains among the most effective strategies for climate change mitigation.” That’s the first line from the abstract of a July 2019 paper published in Science magazine.
Continue readingCORSIA: Offsetting emissions from aviation is a “dangerous, deeply flawed distraction”
The aviation sector is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions. In 2013, commercial airlines burned through 74 billion gallons of fuel, emitting 710 million tons of CO2. By 2018, fuel consumption had increased to 94 billion gallons, and CO2 emissions had increased to 905 million tons.
REDD in the news: 23-29 September 2019
REDD-Monitor’s round-up of the week’s news on forests, climate change, REDD, and natural climate solutions. For regular updates, follow @reddmonitor on Twitter.
“Tomorrow it will be too late to do what we should have done a long time ago”
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change came out of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It has been an abject failure in terms of stopping climate breakdown.
The failure of the UN Climate Action Summit. Helped by the distraction of Natural Climate Solutions
This week saw the UN Climate Action Summit in New York. The highlight was Greta Thunberg’s “How dare you?” speech. She pointed out that the remaining CO2 budget will be gone in less than nine years at today’s emissions levels. “There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today,” she predicted.
Gabon signs US$150 million REDD deal with Norway. Shhh… Don’t mention corruption
At a meeting on 22 September 2019 in New York, Lee White, who was recently appointed Forestry Minister in Gabon, announced a new US$150 million REDD deal with the Central African Forest Initiative. The meeting marked the fifth anniversary of the New York Declaration on Forests. The money will come, surprise, surprise, from Norway.
REDD in the news: 16-22 September 2019
REDD-Monitor’s round-up of the week’s news on forests, climate change, REDD, and natural climate solutions. For regular updates, follow @reddmonitor on Twitter.
California approves the Tropical Forest Standard. Good news for the fossil fuel industry. Bad news for the climate crisis
On 19 September 2019, the California Air Resources Board voted 7-4 to approve the Tropical Forest Standard. CARB is determined to convince us that this is not an approval of REDD offsets in California’s cap-and-trade scheme. In a presentation about the Tropical Forest Standard CARB staff point out that, “Endorsement of the Standard Does Not … Establish tropical forest offset credits for use in the California Cap-and-Trade Program”.
Guest Post: Facing a burning crisis
Tal Harris is Greenpeace Africa’s International Communications Coordinator. He submitted this Guest Post about the fires in the Amazon, and in the Congo Basin.