Workshop| REDD+ in California?Exploring linkages between California’s cap-and-trade system and international programs to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation
 This all-day symposium will explore the potential benefits
and challenges of linking programs in foreign jurisdictions directed at
reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) to
California’s
cap-and-trade program as sources of offsets. Using the recently released
REDD Offset Working Group draft recommendations on this topic as a springboard,
the program will include speakers from government, academia, the NGO community,
and foreign subnational governments. It will focus, in particular, on
regulatory design elements and the legal and institutional mechanisms that
would be required to enable California to recognize emissions reductions from
jurisdictional REDD+ programs as offsets under California's cap-and-trade
program. Soliciting public feedback on the REDD Offset Working Group
draft report will be a primary aim of the symposium.
The REDD Offset Working Group (ROW) was established in
February 2011 as a result of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in
November 2010 between the Governors of California, Chiapas and Acre, as part of
a collaborative effort to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest
degradation. Deforestation and forest degradation account for approximately 15
percent of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. Comprehensive efforts
to constrain the impacts of climate change will require significant global
cooperation to reduce GHG emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
Based on direction in the MOU, the ROW was created with state representatives
and technical experts, who serve in their personal capacities.
Read the ROW's recommendations
Co-sponsored by the Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment, UCLA School of Law; Evan Frankel Environmental Law and Policy Program, UCLA School of Law; REDD Offset Working Group; Green Technology Leadership Group; and Governors' Climate and Forests Task Force.
Agenda
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Time
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Event
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8:45 - 9:15
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Registration
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9:15 – 9:30
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Welcome
Cara
Horowitz (Executive Director, Emmett Center on Climate Change and the
Environment, UCLA School of Law)
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9:30 - 11:45
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Panel 1: Why REDD+? Why California?
This
panel will provide an overview of REDD+ and its evolution within
international climate policy discussions, including: how REDD+ differs from
early approaches to forests and land use in the Kyoto Protocol to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); the current state of
REDD+ in the context of ongoing international negotiations; and the
significant progress that has occurred in reducing deforestation outside of
the UNFCCC process (e.g., substantial deforestation reductions in Brazil). Additionally, speakers will describe the
key role of states and provinces working together on jurisdictional REDD+
programs as part of the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF). Finally, this panel will outline
opportunities and challenges regarding the integration of REDD+ into
California’s cap-and-trade program.
Moderator
Sean Hecht (Executive Director,
Environmental Law Center, UCLA School of Law)
Speakers
- Daniel Nepstad (International Program
Director, Amazon Institute of Environmental Research;
ROW Participant)
- Michelle Passero (Senior Climate Policy Advisor, The
Nature Conservancy; ROW Participant)
- Jeff Conant (Friends of the Earth)
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| 11:45 - 1:00 |
Lunch |
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1:00 - 2:45
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Panel 2: Design Options for REDD+ in California
This
panel will summarize the regulatory design recommendations from the REDD
Offsets Working Group (ROW) and present reactions to these recommendations. Speakers
also will provide a summary of information presented in the previous two ROW
workshops, including the concept of sectoral or jurisdictional offset
programs (as opposed to stand-alone forest carbon projects tied to voluntary
markets); reference levels; monitoring, reporting, verification, and
enforcement; and safeguards.
Moderator
Megan Herzog (Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law & Policy, UCLA School of Law)
Speakers
- Tony
Brunello (Green
Technology Leadership Group; ROW Facilitator)
- Monica Julissa de los Rios (Advisor to the President, Institute of Climate Change and Regulation
of Environmental Services for the State of Acre in Brazil)
-
Alan Ramo (Director, LLM Environmental Law
Program, Golden Gate University Law School)
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2:45 - 3:00
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Break
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3:00 - 4:45
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Panel 3: Linkage and Subnational Policy Innovation
This panel
will focus on the challenges and opportunities that attend efforts to link
California’s cap-and-trade program with foreign subnational jurisdictions’
REDD+ programs. Speakers will describe
the overall importance of such linkage in the context of a world where
climate policy is apt to remain deeply fragmented for the foreseeable future
(e.g., learning, proof of concept, bottom up approach to building a global
carbon market, etc.).
Moderator:
Cara
Horowitz (Executive Director, Emmett Center on Climate Change and the
Environment, UCLA School of Law)
Speakers:
- William Boyd (Associate Professor, Colorado
Law; ROW Participant)
- Ann Carlson (Shirley Shapiro Professor of
Environmental Law & Faculty Director, Emmett Center on Climate Change and
the Environment, UCLA School of Law)
- Ludovino Lopes (Consultant to the Secretary of
Environment for the State of Acre in Brazil; ROW Participant)
- Felicia Line (Head of the Climate Change and Energy Department, Ministry of Environment and Natural History, State Government of Chiapas, Mexico)
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4:45 - 5:00
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Conclusion and Next Steps
Reflecting on the Workshop:
- William Boyd (Associate
Professor, Colorado Law; ROW Member)
- Daniel Nepstad (International
Program Director, Amazon Institute of Environmental Research; ROW Participant)
Next Steps:
- Tony
Brunello (Green
Technology Leadership Group; ROW Facilitator)
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5:00 - 5:30
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Light Reception |
Type of EventProgramsTopics |
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