Scaling up REDD+: From Projects to Integrated
National Approaches

FFPRI International REDD+ Seminar
Tokyo, Japan

8 February 2013

Summer Montacute, REDD+ Coordinator, VCSA

AgendaVCS and AFOLU Program Overview• Need for Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+(JNR)• High-Level Technical Overview of JNR• Next Steps for JNR• Leveraging VCS AFOLU/JNR for JCM•

19 February 2013

1. VCS and AFOLU Program Overview

The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS)•••

Established by leading NGOs (IETA, WBCSD, The Climate Group, WEF)
to provide a rigorous, trustworthy and innovative global standard andvalidation and verification program for GHG offsets.
Managed by the VCS Association:
 Non-profit headquartered in Washington, DC, South America office inSantiago, Chile, representatives in Bangkok and Beijing Single focus – to develop and manage the platform (i.e., noconsulting, no meth development, no validation/verification, no projectdevelopment)
 Funded through VCU levy (USD $0.10 per VCU) and foundation
grantsAFOLU Steering Committee largely credited with bringing land-based
activities into the carbon market

VCS Program

VCS AFOLU Categories•ARR••ALM••

Reduction in Emissions from Deforestation and forest
Degradation

WRC•

•

Improved Forest ManagementREDD••

Agriculture and Land Management

IFM•

•

Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation

Wetland Restoration and Conservation

ACoGS
•

Avoided Conversion of Grasslands and Shrublands
19 February 2013

AFOLU Requirements
Project Requirements• MethodologicalRequirements• Validation and Verification
Requirements•

2. Need for Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+
Scaling up from project to jurisdiction-wide
approaches
Providing new guidance for integrated REDD+
accounting at multiple scales

What is meant by “nesting”?

Vs.

X

VCS Jurisdictional & Nested REDD+ (JNR)•JNR framework enables robust accounting andcrediting/rewarding of REDD+ programs at multiple
levels (national, state/province, and nested projects
where applicable)
 First international framework for accounting and crediting

jurisdictional REDD+
 Provides detailed guidance for development of jurisdictional
REDD+ programs
 Provides significant flexibility to facilitate use by variety ofjurisdictional contexts; allowing customization while maintaining
robust/consistent accounting
 Establishes pathway for subnational programs to fit within
existing or future national REDD+ frameworks
 Enables governments to establish pathway for projects to nest
within larger-scale jurisdictional programs

JNR Development Process••••••••

Advisory (AC) and Technical Expert (TE) Committees
convened (Q1 2011)
Draft Technical Recommendations released (Oct 2011)
Review by AC, TE and peer group, and revision ofrecommendations (Nov-Feb 2012)
Additional input from AC, TE and pilot jurisdictions andorganizations (including Acre, Amazonas, DRC, Laos, Peru;
CI, TNC, FFI; GIZ and WB) (Mar-May 2012)
Draft JNR Requirements issued for public consultation (May2012)
Further revision and review by VCS AFOLU Steering
Committee and Board (June-Aug 2012)
Final framework released (Oct 2012)2013 Second Phase: Piloting3. High-level Technical Overview

JNR Requirements Overview•

Requirements cover technical issues such as:
Defining boundaries (geographic and program boundaries) Developing and nesting baselines (inc. scope, pools,additionality, updating) ‘Grandparenting’ (providing time for projects and lower-leveljurisdictions to transition into national/sub-national programs)
 Leakage Monitoring Crediting (inc. timing, preventing double counting) Reversals and natural disturbance (inc. crediting implications innesting)•

Requirements also cover other issues such as:
Legal issues (right of use)
 Safeguards
 Approvals (eg, by higher jurisdictional levels)Scenarios

Bottom-Up Approach
Start with two REDD+
projects in a province…

Next develop provincial
REL…

January 23 2013

Then scale up to national REL…
•National REL, specificprovincial REL, andREDD+ projects

January 23 2013

Top-Down Approach•

Same as priorexample, but start at
top level and work
down

January 23 2013

There are many options…
Develop REL
for each province…

…or each region…or nationally
Nesting is about
how it all fits
togetherJanuary 23 2013

JNR Requirements: Examples••••Baselines: Jurisdiction develops historical trend andhistorical average; most plausible baseline is chosen.
Monitoring: Monitoring conducted at least every 5 years;
Lower levels may monitor more frequently, but must alignwith jurisdictional monitoring at least once every 5 years.
Lower level monitoring results may be incorporated intohigher level as best practice.
Safeguards: Must be in accordance with safeguards inDecision 1/CP.16 of Cancun Agreements.
National/Subnational Alignment: Country shall have nomore than two registered jurisdictional levels (eg, nationaland state, or state and municipality). Higher leveljurisdiction is responsible for determining how jurisdictional
and project nesting occur within the higher leveljurisdiction.

4. Next Steps
Additional JNR Documentation
Piloting
Engaging Demand Side

Additional JNR documentation•The following additional VCS documents, templates andtools are still under development:
Registration and Issuance process Validation/verification process for jurisdictional programs
 Jurisdictional Program Description (JPD) Jurisdictional representations
 Tools: Jurisdictional non-permanence risk tool
 Jurisdictional leakage tool••••Tools are being developed by working group under development
Working group will be split into sub-groups (one for each tool)

Timeline: Release additional documents and tools for
public consultation in 2013
Future work: Guidance document, based on lessons
learned from pilot activities, and revisions/updates to JNR
requirements

JNR Piloting•••

Provide support to interested pilot jurisdictions in Latin
America, Asia and Africa (MOU signed with Acre, Brazil,
Chile and Costa Rica)
Funding from NORAD, GIZ and FCMC
Process:
Gap assessment (detailed) and feasibility• Based on above, work plan will be developed to guide
implementation of REDD+ program in line with JNR• Goal of registration of baseline (scenario 1 pilots) or REDD+program (scenario 2 pilots) and in some cases verification andissuance of credits (depending on needs of jurisdiction anddonors/funders)•Demand Side•••••Will continue engaging on demand side with a numberof emerging pre-compliance and compliance markets(Korea, Japan, California, Australia, etc.)
Working with Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil(Rio/Sao Paulo States) and others to help advancedomestic voluntary carbon markets
Participating in World Bank Carbon Fund
Methodological Framework development process
Building demand for jurisdictional REDD+ credits willtake time
JNR framework helps to prepare countries for results
based finance under an eventual UNFCCC framework
19 February 2013

4. Leveraging VCS AFOLU/JNR for JCM

Benefits of JCM Leveraging AFOLU/JNR••••

VCS AFOLU Program and JNR framework have beendeveloped through robust, broad stakeholder process,and leverage existing knowledge/leadership
May streamline development of JCM, where AFOLU/JNR
provide more detailed (operational) guidance on top of
high-level requirements
Would harness key program elements (eg, approval of
documentation, accreditation/verification, reversal
management and registry systems)
Allows countries to use a single program to serve
multiple donors/markets (eg, World Bank FCPF,emerging compliance and voluntary markets…)

How to leverage VCS AFOLU/JNR•Allow countries to use third-party programs/
standards to meet the JCM requirements:
 If meeting AFOLU/JNR requirements satisfies JCM

requirements  no issue
 If JCM requirements are stricter than AFOLU/JNR
requirements  use ‘tagging’ to ensure both sets ofrequirements are met (and verified) If JCM and AFOLU/JNR requirements are different
 VCS to seek solutions with Japan

Tagging Verified Carbon Units (VCUs)
Core Elements

Additional Certifications

JCM?

(Thailand)Thank you… Questions?

Summer Montacute
REDD+ Coordinator
VCS Association
smontacute@v-c-s.org