New World Bank funding to help forest countries secure carbon finance
The World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, (FCPF), is contributing US$500,000 to the Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI), which supports developing countries to establish forest monitoring systems, to help secure results-based finance for the reduction of emissions caused by deforestation and degradation (REDD+).
The funds will support the GFOI Office, which is hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), to help countries build their capacity to monitor their forests and account for greenhouse gas emissions as a key step in responding to climate change, and fulfil one of the many requirements under REDD+.
This contribution will also help lay the groundwork for programs under the World Bank’s new fund, Scaling Climate Action by Lowering Emissions (SCALE), which was presented at the Sharm El-Sheikh Climate Change Conference (COP 27) last month. SCALE will pool funding from the global community to provide climate finance and facilitate global dialogue on incentivising low carbon development including forestry and sustainable landscape management.
“This contribution will help accelerate the GFOI’s work at this crucial time,” said Anssi Pekkarinen, who is responsible for the GFOI Office project at FAO. “The Office ensures effective coordination among major partners committed to improving countries´ ability to reduce emissions from forests and secure financial rewards for doing so.”
Four strands of work
FAO provides technical assistance and capacity building to REDD+ countries. It also leads the capacity building work of the GFOI, It provides assistance and training in forest monitoring and emissions reporting and facilitates communication and global information exchange.
Capacity building is just one of four strands of work coordinated by the GFOI Office to help countries with the REDD+ process: capacity building, data, methods, and research and development.
REDD+ is a framework adopted at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) Conference of the Parties 19 (COP 19) in December 2013. It aims to guide activities by governments to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation through the conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of carbon stocks.
The GFOI is a partnership of donors, development partners, space agencies, academia and others that helps coordinate international support on forest monitoring and greenhouse gas accounting for REDD+.
It is led by nine partners: Australia, the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), the European Space Agency (ESA), Germany, Norway, the US, the UK, the World Bank and FAO.