Looking Ahead

BUILDING BACK BETTER FOR PEOPLE AND FORESTS

2020 is a pivotal year for nature and for people. The intersecting threats presented by the climate crisis and COVID-19 present a daunting challenge, as well as an unprecedented opportunity to chart a new societal course in which humankind truly cares for nature. Forest solutions are central to both climate and biodiversity, with a key role in accelerating action and ambition to address the climate crisis and improve rural livelihoods in the coming decade.

COVID-19 is impacting the scale and scope of key milestones throughout the “Super Year for Nature 2020”. The twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to UNFCCC has been postponed until 2021. As such, our structures and systems must be sufficiently flexible and agile to adapt to a rapidly changing global landscape. In this regard, efforts will be focused on tracking the impact of COVID-19 on key milestones and adjusting the objectives that have been set for 2020 accordingly. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has witnessed robust leadership and cooperation at unprecedented speed and scales. As we forge ahead, the global collective response to COVID-19 provides a powerful example of the kind of commitment and investment that is required for climate and forest solutions in the years ahead.

UN-REDD can leverage its unique advocacy role by pushing the forest agenda to the fore of global consciousness and by tabling evidence and experience that scaling up and accelerating action is possible thanks to a critical mass of partners who have the economic and political leverage to push through the key milestones to achieve the transformations that are needed.

UN-REDD POST-2020

As we turn to the new decade – a decade that is critical for consolidating the 2030 Agenda and addressing the climate crisis – the urgency of action to tackle deforestation remains high on the agenda of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who has called for scaling up action across the United Nations on turning the tide on deforestation. In response, UN-REDD, as the United Nations flagship programme on forests and climate, is committed to significantly elevating global ambition with the aim of helping countries and stakeholders to implement articles 5 and 6 of the Paris Agreement, including enhancing NDCs and their implementation, and mobilizing international finance for forest solutions to the climate crisis. Accordingly, UN-REDD intends to catalyse country delivery of forest solutions, which have the potential to provide around 20 per cent of the required global climate response, as well as to help countries to tap into novel climate finance and mobilize commensurate REDD+ result-based payments. In the next decade, UN-REDD will focus its efforts on supporting Governments, the private sector and other stakeholders to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance removals from forest and landuse sectors through three interrelated approaches: innovation, connection and action

The Programme will advance global innovation around REDD+ implementation and financing for forests by operating as a “spark hub”, fostering innovative partnerships to resolve global demand and supply challenges for REDD+. Learning and momentum for action will be accelerated by deploying the convening power of the United Nations system to create connections and bring together political leaders, the private sector and civil society around forest mitigation solutions. The Programme will also provide technical assistance and policy advice through a mix of tools and technologies, long-term commitments and targeted interventions, to catalyse forest action at the national and subnational scales. An agile Programme, adhering to the principles of flexibility, scale and speed of operations, will need to respond to highly complex challenges and changing opportunities. A renewed UN-REDD will benefit from a focused research and development phase prior to commencing implementation in 2021. Consequently, the Programme is investing in 2020 as an inception year for the new phase. Opportunities and demand at the country and global levels will be mapped and a multi-donor resource diversification and mobilization strategy will be integral to the 2020 inception year.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

With the Secretary-General’s historic Climate Action Summit, 2019 marked a turning point whereby nature-based solutions are now recognized as legitimate and essential climate change mitigation measures, necessary to keeping global temperature rise below the Paris Agreement target of 2 degrees Celsius. It is now acknowledged that forests alone can provide a massive mitigation potential of over 5 GtCO2 eq per year by reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and large-scale carbon removal through sustainable forest management, conservation and restoration (REDD+). Further, REDD+ is now recognized as an effective climate mitigation strategy for NDCs to the Paris Agreement, which is especially important to increasing the ambition of developing countries’ climate commitments. Currently, mitigation measures contained in NDCs are inadequate to bridge the emissions gap to reach the Paris Agreement target by 2030. For a 2 degree Celsius limit to warming, the total emissions gap from current conditional NDCs is 13 GtCO2 eq by 2030; for a 1.5 degrees Celsius limit, the gap is 29 GtCO2 eq. Strongly increased forest action is therefore a critical measure to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, at scale, to close the emissions gap prior to 2030.

The year 2019 also marked the first year that country-led forest emissions reductions have been effectively recognized for financial rewards, within the framework of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, including REDD+ payments from the GCF. The Fund inaugurated its pilot REDD+ payments scheme with the approval of the first REDD+ results-based payments for Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Paraguay.

Novel carbon market mechanisms, suitable for forest solutions, in line with the provisions of article 6 of the Paris Agreement, were operationalized in 2019, including the adoption of the California Tropical Forest Standard and the development of the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART), with The REDD+ Environmental Excellency Standard (TREES). In view of these developments and opportunities for forest solutions, UN-REDD is adjusting its strategy to better serve countries, financiers and in-country stakeholders to participate effectively in these novel market mechanisms that will unfold during the early years of the new decade. As forest solutions gain political traction, coupled with a wider range of emerging financial mechanisms that recognize and incentivize them, UN-REDD becomes more valuable to, and valued by, countries trying to take action and navigate the evolving institutional, technical and financial landscape. By leveraging the knowledge and technical capacity that FAO, UNDP and UNEP have gained over a decade of “Delivering as one”, UNREDD can effectively help partner countries to reduce deforestation at scale and access financial rewards for the associated emissions reductions. As REDD+ transitions from its proof-of-concept stage, in which UN-REDD was an instrumental partner, to full-scale implementation and results-based financing, UNREDD is already formulating its strategy for the period 2021–2030, which will be presented to its governing bodies for adoption in 2020.

Bold action must be taken urgently to safeguard our forests and avert a climate disaster. We will only succeed by working together: reconnecting people and nature to implement the Paris Agreement effectively and secure a sustainable future for all. UN-REDD will continue operating in the vanguard of forest solutions, building on and sharing widely best practices, fostering innovation and replicating efforts at scale. Its strength lies in the complementary skills and experience of its three collaborating agencies working and delivering as “One United Nations”, deploying its team of technical experts and policy advisors on the ground across the world, offering the convening capacity of the United Nations that has underpinned the success of UNREDD since its inception.