Twelfth Conference of the Parties (COP-12)

Nov. 6 - 17 in Nairobi, Kenya

The Woods Hole Research Center played an active role in the proceedings of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) Twelfth Conference of the Parties Nov. 6 - 17 in Nairobi, Kenya. With a focus on climate change mitigation policies that would work synergistically with development goals in the emerging economies of the world, Center staff led sessions on compensating avoided deforestation and other "win-win" strategies, including clean-coal technologies, biomass gasification, transportation, and reduced indoor and outdoor air pollution.

Activities of the Woods Hole Research Center at COP-12

CD copies available » containing the support materials on these pages -"Win-Win" development options for Brazil, China and India.

Linking Climate Policy With Development Strategy: "Win-Win" Options For Brazil, China, And India

Funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

The Woods Hole Research Center is collaborating with the Energy Technology Innovation Project at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and with participating organizations in the three focus countries to identify, analyze, and promote high-leverage policies for simultaneously reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and advancing other development goals.

This effort combines cutting-edge, interdisciplinary, collaborative research on the science, technology, and economics of climate-change mitigation with the practical understandings of national opinion leaders and decision makers, to highlight successes already being achieved in "win-win" approaches that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions at the same time as they address other societal objectives, to scale up those successes, and to identify, develop, and promote other options having this "win-win" character.
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Media coverage of related side event at COP-12:
      Climate policy and development in emerging economies.

The Amazon in a Changing Climate. The report (pdf - 1.67MB)

Report Addresses Challenges and Opportunities for the Future of the Amazon Rainforest

At a side-event sponsored by the Amazon Institute of
Environmental Research (IPAM), the Woods Hole Research Center, and Environmental Defense, a report was released warning that the combined action of deforestation and climate change represents a serious threat to the Amazon region, and that destruction of the Amazon rainforest will, in turn, speed climate change. The paper does highlight, however, that there are important opportunities to reduce deforestation and forest degradation in the Amazon that will substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while stemming the loss of biodiversity, and cultural disruption. The report was written by scientists at IPAM, the Woods Hole Research Center and the Federal University of Minas Gerais.
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Media coverage of related side event at COP-12:
      Measuring and monitoring the reduction of GHG emissions from tropical deforestation.

Monitoring Carbon Emissions in Developing Countries

Tropical countries must identify and initiate policies and practices that alleviate poverty through innovative market-based approaches while conserving natural resources. Countries must also report on how their activities have contributed or mitigated to climate change, for example, through reducing emissions of greenhouse gases or enhancing carbon sequestration.

The Woods Hole Research Center is actively calculating the emissions of carbon dioxide from tropical deforestation in several countries. In addition, the Center works closely with national institutions on technical training, enabling countries to implement their carbon monitoring system and scale results nationaly for carbon accounting. The tools developed by the Center will facilitate construction of emissions inventories, thereby enabling reporting directly to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

©Woods Hole Research Center, 2008