Author(s)

Kamleshan Pillay^*, Lisa Frost Ramsay

School of Agriculture, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.

With the possibility of a new climate agreement being formed in 2015 at COP 21 in Paris, there is a vital need to restructure REDD+ for formal inclusion into such an agreement. There are two vital questions that need to be assessed if REDD+ is to be effective as a policy tool within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). First, can REDD+ be financially self-sustaining if it remains as a fund based mechanism or will a market based system be more effective? Second, will REDD+ remain primarily a carbon offsetting mechanism or can it also deliver co-benefits (poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation, and promoting indigenous rights protection)?

CDM, Climate Change, Forest, Post Kyoto, REDD+, UNFCCC

Pillay, K. and Ramsay, L. (2015) Restructuring the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) Mechanism for a Post Kyoto Agreement. American Journal of Climate Change, 4, 69-76. doi: 10.4236/ajcc.2015.41007.