REDD, REDD+, or REDD++: Multiple Perspectives on Climate Change Mitigation in the Forestry Sector

Speaker: Dr David Neidel, Asia Training Program Coordinator for the Environmental Leadership and Training Initiative (ELTI), Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Venue: ISEAS Seminar Room II

About the Seminar:

Deforestation and forest degradation contribute approximately 20% of the annual increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, which is now widely recognized as the major driving force behind global climate change. To help address this problem, afforestation/reforestation projects, which sequester carbon from the atmosphere, were included within the Clean Development Mechanism. Concerns about a complementary and potentially more effective approach, known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), however, have kept it relegated to the Voluntary Carbon Market. While REDD now appears poised for inclusion in both international and national regulatory markets, debates continue to swirl around a number of issues including the exact scope of the approach (RED, REDD, REDD +, or REALU), the nature of the financing mechanism, and a series of methodological issues including additionality, permanence, and leakage.

This seminar is intended to provide an overview of the opportunities and obstacles that exist to using forestry for global warming mitigation, as a way to understand these on-going debates.

Details at the ISEAS website.

• Key Issues for a Successful Copenhagen Climate Change Summit: The Role of Emerging Countries in Asia
• Nanotechnology for Next Generation Solar Energy
• Excerpts from a Technology Roadmap for Energy Security and Environment Sustainability
• Climate Change in Singapore
• Possible Environmental Crises Facing Singapore and Appropriate Responses: The Case of the Poh Ern Shih Buddhist Temple