Climate Action 2016-2017

Even where forestry and agriculture are
included in INDCs and national plans, it is unclear
how contributions from these sectors will be
achieved. Insufficient international support in
the form of finance, technology transfer and
capacity building hinder many countries’ abilities
to implement the adaptation and mitigation
measures outlined in their INDCs in agriculture,
forestry and other land-use sectors.
FORESTRY RESEARCH FINDINGS
Forestry and landscapes offer a number of
recognised mitigation measures, and research by
organisations like CIFOR helps to refine and target
these measures to best effect. Four examples
highlight the diversity of forestry research
that informs the land sector’s contribution in
implementing the Paris Agreement.
In doing so, we must consider the future
horizons in forestry and landscape management,
and incorporate a long-term transition toward
sustainable systems. History tells us that active,
long-term forest management can increase both
productivity and carbon stocks while improving
resilience and reducing the risk of wildfires. It is
important therefore not to be short-sighted when it
comes to forestry, landscapes and climate change.
ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION
Ecosystem restoration is increasingly seen as
part of national mitigation efforts and represents
the only land sector activity with considerable
potential as a carbon sink. Large-scale restoration
offers both opportunities and challenges for
poverty reduction and equitable outcomes.
Ecosystem restoration efforts are under way
through a number of large-scale initiatives.
The Bonn Challenge is a global commitment to
restore 150 million ha of the world’s deforested
and degraded land by 2020, and 350 million
by 2030. Supporting this, Initiative 20x20 in
Latin America and AFR100 in Africa aim to
restore 20 million and 100 million ha of land
in the respective regions by 2020 and 2030.
And ecosystem restoration is not just about
forests: in Indonesia, for example, the Peatland
Restoration Agency aims to restore two million
ha of degraded peatland over five years, directly
addressing the large carbon emissions from
peatland degradation.
Ecosystem restoration offers immediate
mitigation and adaptation benefits from the land
sector. Achieving restoration at scale, however,
requires countries to address the drivers behind
current land degradation, as well as enabling or
hindering policies, in an integrated way. Forestry
research underpins ecosystem restoration
efforts, and informs the most effective and
equitable approaches.
"Ecosystem restoration
offers immediate
mitigation and
adaptation benefits
from the land sector."
THE PRIVATE SECTOR
The private sector’s role in implementing the
Paris Agreement is a fast developing area with
rapidly increasing expectations. Many non-state
actors – companies, financial institutions and
non-governmental organisations – have made
bold commitments to reduce deforestation and
improve management of forests and agricultural
commodity production. The New York Declaration
on Forests, which endorsed and extended the
Bonn Challenge 2020 target, set out a commitment
to cut deforestation in half by 2020 and eliminate it
entirely by 2030. The declaration was signed at the
United Nations Climate Summit in New York by 30
national governments, 50 private companies and
many non-governmental organisations – but it did
not specify a plan for how to achieve the targets.
Actions taken by the private sector – for
example the elimination of commodity-driven
deforestation from agricultural supply chains – will
contribute to the achievement of national-level
mitigation and adaptation measures and NDCs.
Questions remain, however, as to how such
actions will be monitored, verified and reported.
Private sector commitments do not currently
form part of the information requirements
related to NDCs or the UNFCCC reporting or
transparency frameworks. Research to identify
and track the private sector’s potential and actual
contributions will help determine how it can best
be incorporated into national plans and contribute
to Paris Agreement implementation.
BIOENERGY
Bioenergy is widely discussed as a major
opportunity by which the land sector can contribute
to climate change mitigation in many countries.
Indeed, bioenergy constitutes nearly 10 per cent of
the world’s energy supply, and there is potential both
to increase supply and improve conversion rates.
Bioenergy is typically a side-product in land-use
systems and should be addressed as an integrated
component of these systems. However, current
analyses of bioenergy as a climate action often treat
bioenergy as a stand-alone action, which has led to
a polarised debate.
When seen as a large-scale production
system dedicated to mitigating climate change
– for example, using crops to generate power to
achieve so-called Bioenergy with Carbon Capture
and Storage (BECCS) – researchers caution that
life-cycle emissions need to be comprehensively
assessed. Under current accounting rules,
the carbon neutrality of bioenergy and how
it is incorporated into carbon accounting
methodologies are sometimes questioned.
There is considerable risk in isolating
policies for climate impact from bioenergy
from wider land use benefits and value chains.
Bioenergy is often a valuable and necessary
co-benefit in production systems for food or
forest products, especially for smallholders.
Benefits from bioenergy could be increased
through technology development towards better
conversion rates, which could also enhance the
climate change mitigation potential.
At the same time, it is clear that large-scale
bioenergy production has become a highly
politicised topic in parts of the global North,
with doubts on environmental integrity and the
effectiveness of subsidies. Bioenergy is also
often portrayed as potentially reducing countries’
abilities to produce food. Clearly, more nuanced
and solution-oriented research on bioenergy
systems is desirable.
REDD+
REDD+ is an international policy framework to
provide financial incentives to reduce emissions
from deforestation and forest degradation and
to conserve and enhance forest carbon sinks.
Completed in 2015, the framework is a key element
of the Paris Agreement (Article 5), together with
other approaches that include joint mitigation and
adaptation. Many countries are studying ways to
implement REDD+, and clear signals are needed,
for example from the Green Climate Fund, on the
level of REDD+ financing available and how it will
be operationalised (CIFOR Infobrief 138).
Research on the governance challenges
of REDD+ has shown that the collaboration
and alignment of central and subnational
government levels still has large gaps,
including communication and sharing of
resources. Lessons can be drawn from the
REDD+ experience for implementing NDCs at
subnational levels.
THE WAY AHEAD
The NDC process will provide a framework to
move countries’ climate agendas forward and
periodically increase their ambition through
the five-yearly revision process. Over time,
implementing the Paris Agreement means that
countries need to move away from isolated
WATER & AGRICULTURE
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