There is widespread agreement that tropical deforestation, which
accounts for about 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, must
be halted in order to avoid the catastrophic impacts associated
with a 2°C or more rise in global mean temperature. Executive
summary: There is also agreement that efforts to reduce
emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) in
developing countries must play a prominent role in United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
negotiations and in domestic climate change initiatives in
countries such as the United States. The political will to
provide financial incentives for developing nations with
tropical forests is a positive trend. But this political
momentum is under threat as heavy polluters attempt to
appropriate REDD for their own purposes, proposing REDD project
offsets within carbon markets as low-cost substitutes for their
own emissions reductions. Among the most controversial proposals
are sub-national REDD offsets, which allow corporate polluters t