By Chris Lang Indonesia has scrapped the US$1 billion REDD agreement with Norway. In a May 2010 Letter of Intent, Norway had agreed to pay Indonesia up to US$1 billion for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Eleven years later, Norway has not transferred any “results-based” payments to Indonesia.
Category: Indonesia

Book review: “Forest Conservation and Sustainability in Indonesia” by Bernice Maxton-Lee
Bernice Maxton-Lee’s excellent book, “Forest Conservation and Sustainability in Indonesia”, is a must read for anyone who cares about forest conservation and climate change – in Indonesia and globally.

“Worse than doing nothing”: Shell’s REDD offsets in Indonesia and Peru
By Chris Lang Shell promises drivers in Denmark that they can become “CO2 neutral” when they buy carbon offsets with the petrol on sale in Shell’s petrol stations. Recently, three investigative journalists with the Danish newspaper Politiken spoke to a series of experts who point out that customers cannot trust Shell’s forest conservation promises. Morten…

New Greenpeace report exposes VW’s REDD carbon offset sham. The Katingan REDD project faces problems of additionality, permanence, leakage, land conflicts, and (of course) an unverifiable, counterfactual baseline
By Chris Lang A new report by Greenpeace investigates VW’s “climate neutral” production claims for its new ID series of electric cars. Greenpeace concludes that VW has done too little to reduce its CO2 emissions, and that the carbon credits bought from the Katingan REDD project in Indonesia are neither additional nor permanent. VW’s claims…

UNDP’s response to Norway in relation to Green Climate Fund’s “results based” payment to Indonesia reveals no mechanism for dealing with double counting, and how few REDD projects there are in the country
By Chris Lang In August 2020, the Green Climate Fund approved US$103.8 million of supposedly “results-based” funding for the period 2014 to 2016. The Green Climate Fund’s board approved the funding despite the horrific fires in Indonesia’s peatlands in 2015. To make matters worse, Indonesia is planning a series of infrastructure projects and a “Job…