Norway’s PM attending High-Level Event on REDD

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (centre) consults with Jens Stoltenberg (right), Prime Minister of Norway, and Helen Clark (left), Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, during the high-level event on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) convened by the Secretary-General. UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras.

At a meeting in New York on September 23, heads of state and government from all over the world underlined the need for an agreement to reduce deforestation in developing countries.

“Norway has been leading the way with generous support to forested developing countries for REDD activities,” said  Ban Ki-moon in his opening speech.

With the UN Secretary General, the leader of the World Bank, the British Prime Minister, the US Secretary of State, the EU Presidency and leaders from a number of affected countries, Prime Minister Stoltenberg discussed the need to include reduced deforestation in a global climate agreement at the summit in Copenhagen in December.

Stoltenberg said REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) would be part of a Copenhagen agreement and, to that end, his country had pledged $500 million a year towards its implementation. Like several other speakers from developed countries, however, he stressed that an international agreement would have to include standards and support mechanisms for verifying both emissions and the savings provided by forested lands, among other things.  There was also a need for a transparent structure for financial incentives.

UN-REDD Programme was unveiled by Ban Ki-moon and Stoltenberg in 2008.

Norway has allocated up to NOK 3 billion annually as a contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation in developing countries. Also, up to NOK 6 billion has been pledged to Brazil’s Amazon Fund in the years before 2015, provided Brazil delivers large and verifiable reductions in deforestation.

Norway holds the secretariat function of an informal working group of 30 donor countries and central countries affected by deforestation. The group works to find how reduced emissions from deforestation can be financed before a mechanism under the UN Framework Convention becomes operational.

Source: Government.no / Un.org