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What is REDD+?
Protecting the world’s forests is crucial for the climate. Forests absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide and can be a source of greenhouse gas emissions when destroyed or damaged. Countries established the ‘REDD+’ framework to protect forests as part of the Paris Agreement. ‘REDD’ stands for ‘Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries. The ‘+’ stands for additional forest-related activities that protect the climate, namely sustainable management of forests and the conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks. Under the framework with these REDD+ activities, developing countries can receive results-based payments for emission reductions when they reduce deforestation. This serves as a major incentive for their efforts.
Forests are critical to absorb greenhouse gas emissions and are a crucial part of resilience to the unavoidable impacts of climate change, such as absorbing heat and regulating water flows. Humans depend on forests for food, energy, shelter, income, and medicine. This includes over 1.6 billion people directly, of which 60 million are indigenous peoples. Forests and trees reduce air pollution and heat exposure. Walking in forests can boost our immune systems and improve mental health. They also serve as habitat for biodiversity and provide spiritual values important to many people and communities globally.
As of the end of 2024, REDD+ forest reference emission level / forest reference level submissions cover a forest area of approximately 1.7 billion hectares, which are over 90% of tropical forests and over 75% of forests in developing countries. REDD+ submissions to the UN Climate Change secretariat now cover forest ecosystems from the boreal forests of Mongolia to the dry forests of Malawi, and from rainforests in all tropical regions.
The UN Climate Change secretariat has been undertaking REDD+ technical assessments for over 10 years. In total, 63 developing countries have reported REDD+ activities to the UN Climate Change secretariat. As a result of REDD+ activities, 23 of these countries reported a reduction of almost 14 billion tons of carbon dioxide, about 2.5 times the amount of net greenhouse gas emissions from the United States in 2022, and 19 countries are now eligible to seek results-based finance.
REDD+ is commonly referred to as the Warsaw Framework for REDD+ (WFR) adopted at COP 19 in Warsaw, December 2013, and provides the complete methodological and financing guidance for the implementation of REDD+ activities. REDD+ is also recognized in Article 5 of the Paris Agreement, where Parties re-iterated the encouragement to implement REDD+ activities, and that these should be an integral element of the Paris Agreement. Therefore, the WFR is a foundation for Parties engaged in REDD+ to fulfill the highest level of commitment to climate actions in the forest sector.
REDD+ primarily aims at the implementation of activities by national governments to reduce human pressure on forests that result in greenhouse gas emissions at the national level. As an interim measure it also recognizes subnational implementation. The implementation of REDD+ activities is voluntary and depends on the national circumstances, capacities and capabilities of each developing country and the level of support received.
The Warsaw Framework for REDD+ has mobilized significant resources for REDD+ implementation, including for capacity-building, technical assistance, demonstration activities and results-based finance. Many developing countries have significantly enhanced forest monitoring and management capacities, which is essential to achieve forest protection and sustainable management of forests over the long-term. Many developed countries and financing entities have provided significant support for REDD+ readiness and demonstration activities and continues to do so to ensure sustainability of actions.
While cooperation of governments and national planning are vitally important for successful climate mitigation, governments will not be able to address deforestation and forest degradation alone. A wide range of stakeholders is interested in entering the field and stepping up efforts to contribute to the implementation of national actions, including by connecting actors interested in the conservation and sustainable management of forests with potential sources of finance to support these activities. Such stakeholders include private businesses, investors, forest owners, subnational governments and local communities.
Parties agreed that REDD+ should be implemented in phases, which can overlap:
Beginning with the development of national strategies or action plans, policies and measures, and capacity-building (also known as the readiness phase),
Followed by implementation of national policies and measures and national strategies or action plans that could involve further capacity-building, technology development and transfer and results-based demonstration activities,
And evolving into results-based actions that should be fully measured, reported and verified, allowing countries to seek and obtain results-based payments.
Relevant organizations and stakeholders are invited to support efforts by Parties in a number of ways, for example by addressing drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, sharing experiences, support capacity-building, provide technical assistance and mobilize resources. Although many different stakeholders are involved in the actual implementation of the REDD+ activities, such actions should happen within the framework of the national REDD+ strategy or action plan, because the national government is the responsible entity for reporting to the UNFCCC.
The elements that are being developed during the early phases of REDD+ should be in place when developing countries seek to obtain and receive results-based finance for results-based actions that are fully measured, reported and verified. Information that needs to be reported to be eligible for results-based finance includes:
The assessed results (tonnes CO2 per year) for each relevant period;
The assessed forest reference level (tonnes CO2 per year);
The summary of information on how all of the REDD+ safeguards are being addressed and respected;
A link to the REDD+ national strategy or action plan;
Information on the national forest monitoring system.
Both results and forest level must be analyzed and verified under the UNFCCC technical assessment (for forest reference level) and analysis (for results) process by two independent experts. Under Article 5 of the Paris Agreement, REDD+ reporting continues with the following arrangements:
The technical assessment of forest reference levels continues to be organized as a centralized activity once per year;
The technical analysis of results submitted in a technical annex of biennial transparency reports takes place concurrently with the technical expert review of biennial transparency reports.
Once reported, all of the information above, including technical assessment and analysis reports, is available on the central Lima Information Hub for REDD+.
One of the strengths of the WFR is the trust it creates between actors by providing transparency on the implementation of REDD+ results-based actions, while also allowing the flexibility for countries to implement REDD+ activities depending on the specific national circumstances, capacities and capabilities of each developing country and the level of support received. The transparency of REDD+ activities in accordance with the WFR is also essential to ensure environmental integrity and consistency with the Paris Agreement.
Parties, relevant organizations and stakeholders are also encouraged to share information related to REDD+ on the UNFCCC REDD+ Web Platform.
