Event Detail

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Money Growing on Trees? Stopping Tropical Deforestation to Solve the Climate and Resource Crises

Lunch provided
Limited space:  To reserve a seat please RSVP to lauren_bloomberg@hks.harvard.edu.
Speakers:Per Fredrik Ilsaas Pharo is the Director of Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative, which is providing up to USD 500m annually to kick-start a global climate regime that rewards developing countries for verified emission reductions in the forest sector (REDD+ in UN lingo). Norway has entered into partnerships with support of USD 1bn each to Brazil and Indonesia.Daniel Nepstad is the founding president of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), formerly with Woods Hole. He is a leading forest ecologist, and is currently putting together a consortium of companies and NGOs to transform global supply chains by linking certification from commodity roundtables to future payments for reduced forest emissions. These efforts will be critical to achieve the highly ambitious pledge from the Consumer Goods Forum (with combined revenues of USD 2 trillion) to eliminate deforestation from their commodity supply chains by 2020.Joseph Aldy, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School, White House representative on climate change during deliberations of federal cap-and-trade legislation and the 2009 Copenhagen climate talks.Moderator: Prof. William Clark, Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy and Human Development and Director, Sustainability Science Program, Harvard Kennedy School.Description: Destruction of tropical forests causes more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire global transport sector (15% of world total). Reducing deforestation is one of the most cost-effective ways to cut emissions, and can provide significant local social and environmental benefits. Some 40 developing countries are preparing for an emerging scheme under the UN climate change negotiations that will reward developing countries for reducing such emissions (“REDD+”). Norway has already pledged USD 1bn to both Indonesia and Brazil if they meet their ambitious emission reduction targets. Meanwhile, multinational companies with combined revenues of USD 2 trillion have committed to eliminate deforestation from their commodity supply chains by 2020. Key questions: How to reduce pressure on forests while feeding 9 billion people by 2050? How to demonstrate that stopping deforestation and rationalizing land use planning is in the long term national self interest, while at the same time mobilizing international support? How to create sufficient ‘demand’ for emission reductions at scale without a binding global climate regime pre-2020?

• Location:
  Littauer-166 (IOP conference room)
• Date:
  Tuesday, April 17, 2012
• Time:
  12:30 PM

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