The COP21 Waiting Game Continues; Where Does REDD+ Stand?

Climate Forests Dec 11, 2015
Will Tucker

It’s Friday afternoon and many of the negotiators in Paris are still recuperating after a sleepless night spent hammering out the biggest remaining sticking points in the global climate agreement. COP21 President and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has pushed back the timeline for a final agreement to Saturday afternoon, which gives negotiators and ministers some breathing room while also upping the urgency quotient.

On paper, REDD+ is in great shape as it appears in the “penultimate” draft released last night. But it isn’t over the hump yet, as forest protection and the finance to make it happen could come under new threats at the 11th hour. This is due to changes in other sections of the draft agreement — particularly finance, transparency, and accounting – that could have major indirect consequences for REDD+.

We remain hopeful that all the puzzle pieces fall into place. As always, our experts are actively monitoring developments on the ground. We’ll keep you apprised as the full picture comes into focus, both for REDD+ and the overall agreement.

A version of this post also appears on the Friday LiveBlog at Ecosystem Marketplace.

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