International Forest Carbon Initiative

FCPF Steering Committee Meeting, Wednesday 9 July 2008

• • • •

IFCI Overview

Australia has committed

$A200 million over five years

mitigation option, in line with the Bali Action Plan , from July 2007, to support development and adoption of REDD as an effective and equitable Aims are to:  increase international

forest carbon monitoring and accounting

capacity  undertake

practical demonstration activities

to show how REDD can be included in a future international climate change framework  contribute to and/or coordinate closely with

other bilateral and multilateral efforts

to develop and learn from REDD initiatives Three broad elements: 

Global partnerships:

concept development  coordination, financing, research and evaluation,

Bilateral forest carbon partnerships:

Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, formalised at Head of Government level 

Carbon monitoring services:

regional in scope, progressively linked to a global system IFCI is a

whole-of-government initiative

, with implementation jointly managed by AusAID and the Department of Climate Change

Global Partnerships

• • • • $US10 million contribution to the

Forest Carbon Partnership Facility’s Readiness Mechanism

 complemented by ongoing engagement in the development of the

Forest Investment Fund/Program

within the Strategic Climate Fund $A3 million research and evaluation partnership with the

Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

based in Bogor, Indonesia, to help meet the need for further research on policy and technical issues associated with REDD, and contribute to global learning from demonstration activities $A1.5 million to support

international NGOs

, in partnership with local and national governments, to develop concepts for REDD demonstration activities  NGOs have strong local knowledge and are already supporting incipient local government initiatives, but their ideas need to be better linked to national REDD strategy development Ongoing

dialogue and coordination

with other key bilateral donors (including the UK, Norway, and Germany) on multilateral and bilateral issues and programs

Indonesia-Australia Forest Carbon Partnership I

• • • In progress since mid-2007; formalised at

Head of Government level

in June 2008 Key areas of the Partnership: 

policy development

and

capacity building

to support participation in relevant international negotiations and future carbon markets;  technical support for Indonesia to develop its

national forest carbon accounting and monitoring system

; and  development of large-scale

demonstration activities

, and the provision of related

enabling assistance

, to trial approaches to REDD. Working closely with the World Bank, UK, Germany who constitute the donor membership of the “

Indonesia Forest Climate Alliance

”

Indonesia-Australia Forest Carbon Partnership II

• • • • Includes $A30 million toward the $A100 million

Kalimantan Forest Carbon Partnership (KFCP)

, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the deforestation, drying and burning of peatlands by up to 700 Mt CO 2 -e over 30 years, by:    preventing deforestation of up to 70,000 hectares of standing forest rehabilitating 200,000 hectares of degraded peatland reforesting up to 70,000 hectares of rehabilitated peatland

KFCP progress

to date: framework design close to finalised; next step is full demonstration activity design and implementation, July to December 2008 A further $A10 million has been committed for

REDD enabling assistance

at the national level, which is being used to:  support the development of a national policy and strategy for REDD  support the development of a national Forest Resource Information System (FRIS), including a national carbon accounting system  build on past Australian assistance in fire prevention, monitoring and management

Enabling assistance progress

to date: Forestry minister will shortly issue a detailed decree on REDD, supported by Australia and others through the Indonesia Forest Climate Alliance; first phase of FRIS design now complete; and fire-related assistance scoped and now mobilising

• • •

Papua New Guinea-Australia Forest Carbon Partnership

Formalised at

Head of Government

level in March 2008; less advanced than the Indonesia-Australia Partnership Key areas of work: 

Policy dialogue

: to coordinate policies on REDD and support negotiations on the development of market-based incentives for REDD in developing countries 

Forest carbon monitoring and measurement

: work actively together to build Papua New Guinea’s forest carbon monitoring and accounting capacity, drawing on Australia’s experience in national carbon accounting and measurement 

Participation in global carbon markets

: exchange experience and expertise that will support both countries’ participation in international carbon markets, and identify and implement REDD demonstration activities.

Initial allocation of

$A3 million

to support these areas of work, particularly the development of a national carbon accounting system.

Carbon Monitoring Services

• • • Strategic partnership with the monitoring system

Clinton Climate Initiative

, announced in February 2008, will see Australia’s National Carbon Accounting System adopted as a key platform in the rolling out of a global forest carbon Proceeding with

establishment of additional remote sensing capacity

northern Australia to serve the Asia-Pacific region, which will:  Provide high-quality, low-cost forest carbon data to a broad group of Asia-Pacific countries on request  In Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, complement Australian assistance in the establishment of national forest carbon monitoring systems and related institutional capacity in Australia’s Department of Climate Change is working with Japan, Thailand and other holders of satellite imagery archives to access and make available to Asia-Pacific countries processed historical data to inform development of

national baselines

• •

IFCI and the FCPF

Commonalities

:  Shared objectives: exploring feasibility of REDD approaches to inform UNFCCC discussions on post-2012 framework   Shared commitment to partnership with national governments, methodological rigour and learning by doing Shared experience of supporting Indonesia’s transition to REDD readiness, prior to formal establishment of FCPF

Complementarities

:     IFCI able to provide early readiness assistance, as in Indonesia, while FCPF organised financing, governance and administrative arrangements IFCI’s bilateral elements focused on Australia’s near neighbours and consequently have very strong political buy-in IFCI able to operate in FCPF’s “missing middle”, directly and also in future through the Forest Investment Fund/Program IFCI not constructed on a seller-buyer partnership model like FCPF → possibly more flexibility to experiment with different forms of REDD  IFCI a platform for leveraging Australian experience in carbon monitoring and accounting, and other areas such as fire prevention and management