Abstract

Achieving Forest Carbon Information with Higher Certainty
Track: Climate Change
Authors: D. James Baker

International negotiations on the inclusion of land use activities into an emissions reduction system for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have been partially hindered by the technical challenges of measuring, reporting, and verifying greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the policy issues of leakage, additionality, and permanence. This paper outlines a plan for estimating forest carbon stocks and emissions with the accuracy and certainty needed to support a policy for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, forest conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (the REDD-plus framework considered at the UNFCCC COP-15) in developing countries.

D. James Baker
The William J. Clinton Foundation, Global Carbon Measurement Program
8031 Seminole Avenue
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19118-3915
United States
Phone: (215) 247-8031
Fax: (215) 247-8708
E-mail: djamesbaker@comcast.net