Will the future be REDD? Consistent carbon accounting for land use

The present article is a contribution to the international debate on the compensation mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD). Since its inception, the debate has constantly widened its scope to now cover deforestation, degradation and forest management. In order to avoid methodological complexities and inconsistencies in carbon reporting and accounting, the authors promote a unified accounting system that does not distinguish between industrialized and developing countries. Such a system has been created for Annex-I countries with the Kyoto Articles 3.3 and 3.4. It allowed for a stepwise implementation and recognized the need for capacity building and learning-by-doing for the first commitment period. If this system serves as a blueprint, the main difference will be that industrialized countries have overall targets, while developing countries would determine a sectoral reference level for land use emissions, against which emission reductions in the land use sector are to be measured. As developing countries take over wider climate commitments in the future, this will not affect reporting for land use uptakes and emissions. In order to develop a comprehensive system, article 3.3 and 3.4 need revision concerning the accounting modalities, i.e. Annex I countries would have to switch to net-net accounting. The way REDD has been conceived in Bali, it is restricted to developing countries' forest sector only. If this REDD mechanism were to be the future, it would create methodological hurdles and provide ammunition for opponents against enhanced responsibilities by developing countries within the climate regime.