International Workshop on Sustainable Forestry Management: Monitoring and Verification of Greenhouse Gases - Summary Statement

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change -     

Preface Streamlining JI and CDM accounting procedures through a multi-project approach

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change -     

A framework on interactions of climate and energy policy instruments

In this paper we analyze the concept of interactions between policy instruments addressing environmental, energy and climate change issues. Although discussion on such policies has been taking place for almost two decades, their interactions are not so sufficiently explored. Initially, we refer to literature on various types of interactions and we classify them. Furthermore, we construct a qualitative method that can assist policymakers in selecting an optimal policy mix. This method breaks down into numerous components, the areas where different policies interact, and facilitates the unveiling of potential overlaps and complementarities. These areas consist of categories as measure identification, objectives, scope, market arrangements, market flexibility, financing, technological parameters, timing, compliance parameters and institutional setup. In addition, it renders the possibility of combining different options and design elements of policies. Furthermore, a list of various criteria serves as an assessment tool for interactions, where a weighing factor and uncertainty parameters have been added, in order to produce an aggregate indicator of the ex-ante analysis of the policy mix selected. Through this method, we present a complete framework of discernment of diverse forms of environmental policy instruments.     

Certification of tropical timber and deforestation: Micro monitoring without macro conditions?

Due to external effects associated with rainforest conservation, it is likely that the preferred size of rainforests is larger from the point of view of the international community than from the point of view of those who directly exploit the forests. As trade in tropical timber is the main direct link between forest exploitation and the international community, trade policy instruments have been proposed to promote sustainable forest exploitation. One such instrument is certification of internationally traded tropical timber: sustainably produced timber is labelled so that it becomes distinguishable from unsustainably produced timber. One of the aspects of the current debate is the level at which monitoring of compliance to the certification criteria should take place,i.e., at the macro (country) level or at the micro (concession) level. There seems to be a consensus that in order to be acceptable for industrialised countries' consumers, monitoring and certification should in any case take place at a micro level. However, we argue that in terms of maintaining tropical forests a firm level certification regime may be counter-effective in the short and medium run if no macro conditions are included in the certification process as well.