European Union (EU)

The EU proposes that policies should focus on positive incentives to reduce  emissions from deforestation and forest degradation while promoting  conservation, SFM and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.

The EU favours an approach that bases incentives on agreed national  reference emissions levels, which should be ambitious, yet realistically  achievable, taking into account national circumstances including existing  policies and initiatives, historical data, current trends and developments in  land use. The agreed level would be negotiated and revised periodically. The  EU recognises that sub-national approaches may be appropriate under some  national circumstances, however, national reference emission levels are  essential to avoiding the risk of leakage within the national boundary.

The EU recognises that a REDD+ mechanism will require significant scaling  up of both public and private financial flows to developing countries, and  considers that REDD+ verified emissions reductions could be used in  the medium term for compliance subject to strict quantative limitations  and in the medium to long term be phased into the international carbon  market. The EU also notes that a well designed market-linked approach can  contribute to long-term action.