REDD+ for profit or for good? Review of private sector and NGO experience in REDD projects

Summary

Despite slow progress to securing a robust international agreement on climate change, progress has been made on REDD+ during COP negotiations, notably in the Cancun Agreement and the more recent Warsaw REDD+ Framework. Bilateral and multilateral funding support has also generated and maintained momentum for both REDD+ readiness and testing at country and project levels. This testing is vital to help clarify responses to questions such as who contributes to reducing emissions, how will performance-based payments be made, who is eligible for them, and how will results be measured and monitored? Such initiatives are funded through public and private sources, and most are, in effect, also testing the functionality of carbon markets. The results shed much light on the challenges and opportunities in the roles of the private sector, NGOs and government. The motivation of the research reported on here was to better understand private sector and NGO engagement in REDD+ in particular.