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Explore the comparison between project-based offsets and comprehensive policy design in harnessing forestry's potential to combat climate change. Delve into the criteria, benefits, challenges, and technical, practical, and political issues involved in each approach.
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Project-Based Approaches vs. Comprehensive Policy Design Jeff FiedlerNatural Resources Defense Council November 1, 2003 Katoomba Group, Locarno
What Are We Trying To Do? • Design policy that can realize the potential: • for forestry to contribute to climate solutions • for carbon incentives to change land use • Criteria: • Scale • Accurate assessment of benefits • Administrative feasibility • Political feasibility
Policy Design Options • Project-based offsets • Extension of project-boundary: • Entity-wide • Landscape • National • Opt-in vs. Mandatory • Non-trading policies: • Tax policy • Direct regulation/standards • Incentives/subsidies
Can Projects Achieve Potential? • Cherry Picking: only credits, no debits • Transaction costs reduce economies of scale • Capacity limits for project participants, administrators, verifiers • Do project methodologies still apply once projects become widespread, large-scale? • Double-counting • Structural policies difficult to handle • Will we find credible rules, methodologies?
Benefits of Comprehensiveness • Greater coverage • Reduce or eliminate cherry-picking • Economies of scale for monitoring • Reduce many transaction costs • Avoid difficult project methodologies • Reduce administrative costs • Account for structural policies • Capture multiple revenue streams
Technical Issues • Still need policies to translate national target into incentive for landowners • Monitoring technical, cost limits • Variability in land use sector could cause problems for meeting targets • Public vs. private land treatment • Permanence/Reversibility • Timing of monitoring
Practical and Political Issues • Mandatory regulation of forest/ag sector • Less suitable for some countries, regions • Acceptability of greater role for sinks • Cost for lands with no C changes • Target setting and allocation: • Potential glut of allowances • Handling both +ve, -ve C projections • Registry mechanics for debits • Can it provide community benefits
Final Questions • Comprehensive accounting and project-based policies are fundamentally different • Is comprehensive accounting better? • If comprehensive policy is the end-goal, how much time and effort do we want to invest in project-based approach? • Are we doing enough research on comprehensive accounting?