Scientists call on California governor to OK carbon credits from forest conservation

[Judi Lynn]

by Mongabay.com on 21 August 2018

. . .

A group of prominent scientists is calling on California governor Jerry Brown to incorporate tropical forest conservation into the state’s cap-and-trade regulation ahead of next month’s Global Climate Action Summit, which is being held in San Francisco.

The letter, signed by 20 scientists from a range of institutions, highlights the climate change mitigation potential of tropical forests, which lock up vast amounts of carbon in their vegetation and soils.

“The best science points to an important part of the climate change solution that you are uniquely positioned to unlock: tropical forests,” the scientists write. “These carbon- and species-rich ecosystems could deliver up to a fourth of the carbon emissions reductions needed by 2030 to avoid dangerous climate change. Slowing the deforestation and degradation of tropical forests, the source of as much as one fifth of global emissions, while allowing damaged forests to recover is one of the most cost-effective, near-term steps towards a zero net carbon budget globally.”

California has been mulling the inclusion of tropical forests in its cap-and-trade regulation, which was authorized by the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB32), for a decade. During that time, the state has been developing a tropical forest standard in consultation with experts and using feedback from a set of forest conservation pilot projects run under Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force, an initiative involving leaders from states and provinces in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Spain, and the United States.

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https://news.mongabay.com/2018/08/scientists-call-on-california-governor-to-ok-forest-carbon-offsets/