UN REDD is the official name for forest carbon offsets programs under the auspices of the UN Climate Convention. But before there was REDD, forest carbon offset proponents (to allow polluters to buy forests rather than reduce emissions) were already scheming ways to avoid truly addressing climate change. One of the early misdeeds of this cadre of idiots back in 2003 was to approve the use of genetically engineered trees in carbon offset schemes.
This resulted in the globalization of the movement to stop GE Trees, which since became this organization: The Campaign to STOP GE Trees. Please support our efforts to prevent the social and ecological disaster of GE trees with a donation. Thanks!
So Farewell then, UN REDD
By Chris Lang, REDD-Monitor
Launched in 2008, the UN-REDD programme is slipping slowly into retirement. In May 2015, UN-REDD produced a “Strategic Framework 2016-20”. Few funders stepped forward.
On its website, UN-REDD lists the donors that funded the UN-REDD Programme’s 2008-2015 phase: Norway, the European Commission, Denmark, Japan, Luxembourg, and Spain. This is followed by the following forlorn note:
The Government of Switzerland joined the Programme’s group of supportive donors in 2016 with a contribution to the 2016-2020 phase of the UN-REDD Programme.
And below that is a subheading: “Become a Donor”.
UN-REDD was hoping for between US$200 and US$300 million for its 2016-2020 phase. In June 2016, UN-REDD admitted that it had only received US$15 million:
At this junction, (June 2016), the Fund has not been able to capitalize funding that would allow full deployment and operation of the Programme with its full‐fledged infrastructure for the delivery of both financial flows as well as technical assistance to countries. The future capitalization is estimated in the range of 65 Million US$ for 2017‐2020, out of which confirmation from Norway on 50 Million USD is still pending.
As a result of the reduced funding, the number of staff in the secretariat has shrunk.
UN-REDD was supposed to hold a new executive board meeting in July 2016. The meeting did not take place.