FORCLIMIT attending the FACCE ERA-GAS 2nd Research Programme Meeting & Valorisation Workshop in Amsterdam. Presenting our key policy finding:
“EU has set important restrictions on the potential for forests and forest-based resources to play a more significant role in climate change mitigation strategies of EU Member states”.
Read more on our poster (link).
Background for key policy finding
The 2015 Paris Agreement has breathed new life into the role of forests in the climate policy framework – and thus potentially the larger-than-life human welfare improvements forests can provide. Skepticism, however, dominates policymaker views on the forest role. Though accurate accounting is important, the mobilization of forest potential requires imaginative policy and financing frameworks, incentives and relevant strategies for encouraging forest and forestry-related, climate-friendly action on the part of forest owners, consumers and the global community. Finding inventive ways to mobilize forest potential in the climate policy framework may prove essential to maneuvering the perils of the global climate challenge.
In contrast to some other countries and regions in the world, the European Union has, for the most part, elected to sequester the forest role behind a Pillar, a cap, and a Forest Reference Level (FRL), all of which set important restrictions on the potential for forests and forest-based resources to play a more significant role in the emission reduction and climate change mitigation strategies of EU Member states. This of course does not stop EU Member states from placing more emphasis on the forest role. But it eliminates a large part of the incentive for doing so. Other countries, on the other hand, have opted to accelerate the forest role in climate change mitigation and have proposed strategies, many of which could provide real and meaningful incentives for mobilizing forests and forest-based resources.