REDD, White, and Blue: Is Proposed U.S. Climate Legislation Adequate To Promote a Global Carbon Credits System for Avoided Deforestation in a Post-Kyoto Regime?

Abstract

Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) has emerged as an
important, albeit controversial, component of negotiations for a new international climate change
regime to succeed the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012. Not permitted under the terms of
the Kyoto Protocol, REDD involves paying developing countries to protect their tropical forests as
a climate change mitigation strategy. REDD gained widespread attention by 2005 and took center
stage in the months preceding the negotiation of the Copenhagen Accord in December 2009. After
more than a decade of nonparticipation in international climate change compliance efforts, the
United States has signed the Copenhagen Accord, which contains several provisions addressing
REDD. Significant questions remain, however, regarding the manner and degree to which REDD
mechanisms will be implemented. One of the most critical lingering questions is the potential use
of REDD as a component of U.S. participation in a post-Kyoto climate change regime. The
climate change legislation pending before Congress contains important provisions addressing
REDD. If signed into law, the U.S. legislation would help promote the use of REDD as an
indispensable component of an international carbon market and enable the United States to assume
a long-overdue leadership role in international climate change regulation.