Climate Change and Development Update

June 26, 2014

This spring, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released two troubling reports. One documented the effects climate change is already having around the world and the dramatic impact it is projected to have in the future. The other emphasized the need for urgent action to head off the worst of climate change.

June brought two pieces of good news. First, the US EPA announced a rule requiring states to curb carbon emissions from existing power plants. Second, the Consumer Goods Forum, an alliance of 400 companies that produce and sell products derived from tropical commodities, urged governments to reach an ambitious, binding climate agreement with priority UN REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation). My CGD colleagues tell you what you need to know about these important developments at the nexus of climate and development.

Best,
Michele de Nevers

Companies Urge Governments to Protect Forests, Act on REDD+

CGD senior fellow Frances Seymour welcomed a statement from the Consumer Goods Forum, an alliance of more than 400 firms that depend on tropical commodities, repeating their pledge to put their own houses in order and urging government action on climate, including greater support for REDD+.

IPCC Reports Highlights

“Climate change is regressive—awful for the rich, but catastrophic for the poor.” That was Jonah Busch’s take-away from the IPCC report on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation. A companion report on mitigation (climate jargon for cutting emissions) prompted Owen Barder and Alice Lepissier to urge a global price on carbon emissions. Jonah argued that climate goals cannot be met without rapid progress on slowing and then ending tropical deforestation.

Understanding Drivers of Deforestation

Ending deforestation requires understanding its root causes. To discover the drivers of forest loss, Jonah Busch and Kalifi Ferretti-Gallon conducted a meta-analysis of 117 spatially explicit econometric studies. For more, check out their policy brief titled Stopping Deforestation: What Works and What Doesn't and tune in to hear Jonah and Kalifi discuss why a development-oriented think tank like CGD is tackling deforestation. You can also read my commentary on a key driver – conversion to agricultural land. My take: agriculture needs to be “forest-smart” before it can be “climate-smart”.

Assessing REDD+ in Guyana and Indonesia

How fares REDD+? As part of the Tropical Forests for Climate and Development Initiative, CGD president Nancy Birdsall and Jonah Busch visited Guyana to assess lessons from an agreement between the country and Norway. This partnership is one of the first large scale performance-based REDD+ projects. Read about their findings in this note and blog. Following the trip, Jonah was a guest on the Kojo Nnamdi Show, where he discussed the impact of tropical forests on climate change in Nnamdi’s native country of Guyana.