Making REDD a Success: Readiness and Beyond

If the world is to diminish its acceleration into a dangerous disruption of the global climate system, steep reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere will be needed over the next decade.  The reduction of emissions from tropical forest clearing and degradation is an important piece of the global solution to the climatic disruption for at least three reasons.  First, these emissions will be less expensive to reduce than many sources of emissions from fossil fuel combustion.  Second, a robust international framework is likely to become part of the post-2012 United Nations climate treaty framework currently under negotiation through a mechanism called REDD .  And, third, some countries are demonstrating that large reductions in these emissions are feasible.