BANGKOK, Thailand — Investors are ready to move into the forest carbon offset market, but need signs of certainty before opening their wallets.
An international climate change treaty, legislation in the U.S., and strong legislative frameworks set up in forest countries are viewed as critical to the success of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), which is increasingly seen as vital in any plan to address climate change, according to a WWF survey of 25 global investment players. Deforestation produces roughly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions.
"REDD is critical to a climate solution, and finance is critical to making REDD work," Donald Kanak, chairman of WWF's Forest Carbon Initiative, said in a statement. "In the long term, private capital could play a major role, if certain conditions are satisfied. We need governments to step up to create sufficient financing in the near term to support forest countries' efforts to become REDD-ready."
More than a third of investors in the survey say the nascent forest carbon market has the potential to blossom from a voluntary to compliance market over the next five to 15 years, one day worth billions of dollars.
REDD has enjoyed a growing amount of attention recently, illustrated by an EcoSecurities-ClimateBiz study released earlier this year showing 58 percent of offset buyers held a favorable view of forestry offsets.
The California Air Resources Board recently approved its first state-approved forest carbon accounting standard last week that can be used for projects across the U.S. The protocol, developed by Climate Action Reserve aims to improve forest health and boost carbon stocks, but has raised eyebrows of some because it allows clear-cutting of up to 40 acres if the outcome results in a net increase in onsite carbon stock.
In a sign that the protocol has gained industry support, as was hoped, Sierra Pacific Industries, the largest private forest owner in California, signaled its intent this week to develop a 60,000 acre project that will sequester 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, Reuters reported.
"It fits really well with industrial forestry," Sierra CFO Mark Emmerson told Reuters.
Meanwhile, project developer and marketer Blue Source announced this week it had listed the first project under the new protocol. A 2,500-acre tract of forest in North Carolina will be permanently preserved as part of the Alligator River Avoided Conversion Project.
The protocol will also be used for a reforestation and maintenance effort in the Sierra Madre Occidental forest, the winter home of up to 750 million monarch butterflies. Officials in Mexico and California signed an agreement this week to test a pilot reforestation project in the region, whose excessive logging has threatened the butterflies' annual migration.
Photo CC-licensed by Flickr user estraire.