ROW Linkage Workshop

ROW Linkage Workshop

University of California at Los Angeles

April 5, 2023

This workshop explored the potential benefits and challenges of linking programs in foreign jurisdictions directed at REDD to California’s cap-and-trade program as sources of offsets. It focused on regulatory design elements and the legal and institutional mechanisms that would be required to enable California to recognize emissions reductions from jurisdictional REDD programs as offsets under California’s cap-and-trade program.

Video

REDD 1 - UCLA - 4-5-13 from Green Tech Leadership Group on Vimeo.

REDD2 - UCLA - 4-5-13 from Green Tech Leadership Group on Vimeo.

Slides

Agenda

REDD Offset Working Group Workshop #3

Full REDD+ Program and Jurisdictional Linkage

April 5, 2023 – 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.

UCLA School of Law, Room 1347

8:45 - 9:15

Registration

9:15 – 9:30

Welcome

Cara Horowitz (Executive Director, Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment, UCLA School of Law)

9:30 - 11:45

Panel 1:  Why REDD+?  Why California?

This panel will provide an overview of REDD+ and its evolution within international climate policy discussions, including: how REDD+ differs from early approaches to forests and land use in the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); the current state of REDD+ in the context of ongoing international negotiations; and the significant progress that has occurred in reducing deforestation outside of the UNFCCC process (e.g., substantial deforestation reductions in Brazil).  Additionally, speakers will describe the key role of states and provinces working together on jurisdictional REDD+ programs as part of the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF).  Finally, this panel will outline opportunities and challenges regarding the integration of REDD+ into California’s cap-and-trade program.

Moderator: Sean Hecht (Executive Director, Environmental Law Center, UCLA School of Law)

Speakers:

  • Daniel Nepstad (International Program Director, Amazon Institute of Environmental Research; ROW Participant)
  • Michelle Passero (Senior Climate Policy Advisor, The Nature Conservancy; ROW Participant)
  • Jeff Conant (Friends of the Earth)​

​11:45 - 1:00​

Lunch

1:00 - 2:45

Panel 2:  Design Options for REDD+ in California

This panel will summarize the regulatory design recommendations from the REDD Offsets Working Group (ROW) and present reactions to these recommendations.  Speakers also will provide a summary of information presented in the previous two ROW workshops, including the concept of sectoral or jurisdictional offset programs (as opposed to stand-alone forest carbon projects tied to voluntary markets); reference levels; monitoring, reporting, verification, and enforcement; and safeguards.

Moderator: Megan Herzog (Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law & Policy, UCLA School of Law)

Speakers:

  • Tony Brunello (Executive Director, Green Technology Leadership Group; ROW Facilitator)
  • Monica Julissa de los Rios (Advisor to the President, Institute of Climate Change and Regulation of Environmental Services for the State of Acre in Brazil)
  • Alan Ramo (Director, LLM Environmental Law Program, Golden Gate University Law School)

2:45 - 3:00

Break

3:00 - 4:45

Panel 3:  Linkage and Sub-national Policy Innovation

This panel will focus on the challenges and opportunities that attend efforts to link California’s cap-and-trade program with foreign sub-national jurisdictions’ REDD+ programs. Speakers will describe the overall importance of such linkage in the context of a world where climate policy is apt to remain deeply fragmented for the foreseeable future (e.g., learning, proof of concept, bottom up approach to building a global carbon market, etc.).

Moderator: Cara Horowitz (Executive Director, Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment, UCLA School of Law)

Speakers:

  • William Boyd (Associate Professor, Colorado Law; ROW Participant)
  • Ann Carlson (Shirley Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law & Faculty Director, Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment, UCLA School of Law)
  • Ludovino Lopes (Consultant to the Secretary of Environment for the State of Acre in Brazil; ROW Participant)
  • Rosa Vidal (Director, Pronatura Sur, Chiapas, Mexico)

4:45 - 5:00

Conclusion:

  • William Boyd (Associate Professor, Colorado Law; ROW Member)
  • Daniel Nepstad (International Program Director, Amazon Institute of Environmental Research; ROW Participant)

Next Steps:

  • Tony Brunello (Executive Director, Green Technology Leadership Group; ROW Facilitator)

5:00 - 5:30

Light Reception