Woods Hole Research Center

As a registered observer organization of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Woods Hole Research Center had a delegation of scientists, researchers, and other staff members at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties that was held in Cancun, Mexico. The conference began on Monday, November 29, and concluded Friday, December 10. Below are daily updates from Center staff describing events and progress there over the course of those two weeks.

 

Friday, December 10/Saturday, December 11, 2010:

Scientists at the Woods Hole Research Center have long recognized the important role of tropical forests in the global carbon cycle, and were instrumental in raising awareness for a potential mechanism to reduce emissions from tropical deforestation under the UNFCCC policy process. In 2007, REDD was included in the Bali Action Plan as a potential mechanism for climate change mitigation, and last week, after three years of discussion and negotiation, the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC adopted a decision establishing a mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries; including a role for conservation, sustainable management and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.

The COP decision adopted in wee hours of the morning on Saturday, December 11th, formally establishes an international REDD+ mechanism under the auspices of the UNFCCC. But what, exactly, does that mean? Among other things, the decision:

• Establishes REDD+ as a component of global climate change mitigation efforts, meaning that accounting for reductions in net greenhouse gas emissions and for funding of REDD+ actions will be accomplished within the framework and according to the guidance established by the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Long-term Commitments under the Convention (AWG-LCA);
• Establishes a goal that calls upon all Parties to collectively aim to slow, halt, and reverse forest cover and carbon loss, consistent with the goal of preventing dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system;
• Establishes a list of guidelines and social and environmental safeguards, including the promotion and support of the knowledge and rights of indigenous peoples and local communities and the conservation of natural forests and biological diversity;
• Requests developing country Parties, within the context of the provision of adequate and predictable financial, technical, and technological resources and support, to develop national REDD+ strategies, national forest reference emission levels and/or forest reference levels, and national forest monitoring systems; and
• Urges developed country Parties to support the readiness and demonstration phases of REDD+ mechanisms through multilateral and bilateral funding channels.

In essence, the decision establishes a REDD+ mechanism that is operational for phases I and II, or the readiness and demonstration activity phases, respectively. The decision also requests the Convention’s Subsidiary Body on Scientific and Technical Advice (SBSTA) to develop the guidance necessary for Parties to embark on these two phases, including on methodologies to estimate emissions and removals resulting from REDD+ activities, formulation of forest reference emission levels and/or forest reference levels, and modalities for measuring, reporting, and verifying mitigation actions and for providing information on how REDD+ safeguards are addressed and respected. This work will likely start at the next session of SBSTA in June 2011.

Phase III of the international REDD+ mechanism includes actions that result in measurable and verifiable results related to performance in reducing emissions from deforestation, forest degradation and the role of forest conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks. Several technical and political barriers prevented Phase III from being operationalized by the Cancun decision, including:

• Lack of clarity on whether or not REDD+ can or should be characterized as a nationally appropriate mitigation action (NAMA) for developing countries;
• Lack of agreement between Parties on the broader mechanisms for finance and MRV and how they might apply to REDD+;
• Lack of agreement on the use of sub-national forest reference emission levels and/or forest reference levels, and sub-national monitoring and reporting systems, and a further lack of accepted methodologies for accomplishing these sub-national frameworks; and
• Lack of progress on other aspects of the overarching package on long-term cooperative action under the Convention, which limited the amount of detail that could be accepted in any one component of a final decision.

The REDD+ decision taken in Cancun is a milestone event that formally, and finally, establishes a functional mechanism at the international level. However, far from signaling the end of the WHRC’s engagement in REDD+ policy process, the role of science in defining the most effective, efficient, and equitable framework possible is just beginning.

Nora Greenglass
Research Associate, Policy

 

Thursday, December 9, 2010:

Today, the tension at Moon Palace (where the negotiators are working on the agreement texts) was high. In plenary, high-level negotiators, including presidents, prime ministers and environmental ministers presented their cases, while other negotiators continued working late into the night on attempting to draft text that could ultimately be compromised on. Overall, it seems that whatever agreement is reached will be relatively “light.” For example, though it still looks possible that an agreement on REDD+ will be reached, it is likely to only indicate agreement for funding for a REDD+ pilot phase to be initiated, although disagreements on the funding mechanism will mean that that will not be part of the agreement. The Mexican presidency has prioritized REDD+ and is determined to end this COP with an agreement. However, it will have to soften the language surrounding markets if it is to achieve buy-in from nations like Bolivia. Another sticking point has been measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of social and environmental safeguards. Countries like Brazil have been opposed to a required MRV system for safeguards, whereas the US has said it will not agree without such a system.

Over at the Cancunmesse, the major side event of the day was that of the Governors Climate Forest (GCF) task force. The GCF is the most important initiative for REDD+ at the moment, bringing together subnational governments from the US (California, Illinois, Wisconsin), Mexico (Chiapas, Campeche), Brazil (Acre, Amazonas, Para, Mato Grosso, Amapa), Nigeria (Cross River State), and Indonesia (Aceh, Papua, East Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan) to develop the first carbon market that includes deforestation. Less than a month ago, the governments of California (the 8th largest economy in the world) and Acre and Chiapas signed Memoranda of Understanding allowing the latter to begin selling credits to Californian companies trying to come into compliance with California’s new clean air regulations (AB32) as of 2012. AB32 was upheld by a resounding (and unprecedented) margin in a voter referendum in November’s elections, paving the way for the first cap-and-trade mechanism in a developed country that allows for a percentage of offsets to be met through the purchase of tropical forest carbon. The tropical states and provinces currently part of the GCF contain 20% of the world’s tropical forests. Currently, the offsets allowed by the California cap-and-trade mechanism through 2020 could be supplied entirely by the state of Acre. The next step will be to gain scale through the development of cap-and-trade mechanisms (with REDD+ offset allowances) in other developed country states or regions, to allow more of the tropical states to trade performance-grade forest credits. At the side event, GCF Secretariat Lead William Boyd debuted the GCF website which provides a comprehensive and transparent overview of news, statistics, and other information related to the process. Furthermore, Amazonas handed over the chairmanship of the GCF to Aceh for 2011.

Claudia Stickler
Postdoctoral Fellow

 

Wednesday, December 8, 2010:

One of the experiences the COPs offers is the opportunity to publicly present one’s work. This week has offered several of those for the WHRC delegation. In addition to our interview on Monday with Climate Change TV, Skee and I had a chance to hold a press conference on Tuesday. We focused on the release of our most recent results on carbon emissions derived from land cover land use change and the new pantropical carbon density dataset that we are developing. The press conference gave us a chance to communicate new findings that are relevant to the UNFCCC negotiations and to the many aspects of climate change science.

 

And Tuesday’s events continued with our side event in the evening. Our program brought together the developments in science, economics, and policy that are relevant to terrestrial GHGs and climate mitigation. The four speakers included Brian Murray from Duke University’s Nicholas Institute, Chuck Rice from Kansas State University, and Skee and me from the Center. Michael Obersteiner, from IIASA, served as our discussant and did a fantastic job of not only summarizing key points from the presentations but of connecting the dots and illustrating how these topics – perhaps somewhat wide ranging by the look of them – actually convey the intricacies and interrelations with which we must learn to grapple if we hope to have a meaningful solution to the challenges of climate change that are before us.

Alessandro Baccini
Assistant Scientist

 

Tuesday, December 7, 2010:

My colleagues have done an admirable job of capturing some of the madness of the events here in Cancun thus far in these updates, including the sometimes long commutes (and meetings!), the complex and difficult questions that we face designing an effective strategy to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation & forest degradation (REDD), and the incremental "victories" of getting our issues and concerns across to those in a position to take them the next step. Because we fall under the NGO category at the Conference of the Parties (COP), we are lumped in with a wide range of organizations, but we are nearly unique among them in that we are fundamentally a science-based organization. Our focus here in Cancun is largely one of informing the emerging policy (particularly REDD) with scientific findings (whether in satellite monitoring, carbon budgets, the economics of forest resource use, or the other areas in which we specialize). As with the previous COPs, we toil at getting that science somehow translated into policy, which is never as simple as we might hope - in fact, it is a tediously slow and incremental process, with 2 steps forward & 1 (or 2) back again. But at times there are sudden leaps forward - and by a leap I mean recognition of important contributions that create a ripple that gets amplified, initially at the COP and then more and more in the weeks that follow.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the main avenue for science to inform UN climate policy formation, and that all eventually comes down to compromise among nations (representing their various & diverse interests) and how those transactions get translated into legislative wording. But occasionally even slow-moving negotiations can get a bit of a jolt when they realize that the capabilities have advanced beyond what they're negotiating around. I think our work with what we’re developing in regards to MRV has that potential, and I expect we will see that reflected in what gets presented, and negotiated, at the 17th COP in Durban South Africa next December. I'm looking forward to seeing those presentations, participating in those discussions, and hopefully seeing the pace picked up a bit - because there's little time for twiddling our thumbs while the climate system slips from our ability to influence what happens next. We need more sudden leaps forward - and we'll be working on getting those rolling towards Durban.

Scott Goetz
Senior Scientist

 

Monday, December 6, 2010:

There are approximately 15,000 delegates here at COP-16 in Cancun, including more than 600 NGOs, a smaller number of IGOs (International Governmental Organizations), hundreds of booths, scores of official side events every day, and scores more of unofficial ones. The ambiance at COP-16 is rich, active, colorful, alive, culturally diverse, and busy. It is also chaotic. Most venues, whether the Cancunmesse, the Moon Palace, or the Cancun Conference Center (all separated by miles of bus rides), can be maze-like and overwhelming.

So, why are we here?  First, why am I here?  I started asking myself this question months before COP-16, when I wondered whether or not I should attend. In some ways, there’s not much a scientist can do at a COP if he/she’s not a part of a national delegation. The science has to have been done and inserted into the process before the Conference begins.  My answer to why I’m here comes down to: What if U.N. held an international conference on climate change, and no one came?  I’m in the business of climate change; it’s serious; my presence is needed here to send that message --- if nothing else.

 

The Center goals for this year have focused on finding ways to bring what we know from our science into the international climate policy negotiations. Before Cancun, Center scientists wrote papers for publication to coincide with that start of the COP.  In recent days, we held a dinner, a day-long workshop, and staffed a booth. We also gave talks at other side events, attended meetings, and engaged in negotiations, often until the wee hours of the morning. And tomorrow we are going to lead a side event and hold a press conference. The sun, surf, and beach of Cancun are here, but they’re in the background like a bright blue mural. 

Thinking ahead, another question is what will be our reason for going next year, and how should we prepare? We’re not starting from scratch. But we do need to start defining that goal and our partners now --- now while the freshness of COP-16 experience is in our minds, and now while we have nearly 12 months to get ready for next year in South Africa.

R. A. Houghton
Deputy Director and Senior Scientist

 

Sunday, December 5, 2010:
CIFOR Forest Day 4

For the WHRC delegation today has been one of the most important days of these two weeks: it was Forest Day 4 organized by CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research). This year’s theme was “Time to Act – Es Momento de Actuar.” Frances Seymour, the Director General of CIFOR, opened the day with a review on how attractive this day has become. This year, over 1500 participants representing all ranges of interest groups (called ”stakeholders” in the UNFCCC lingo) attended. Seymour highlighted how since Forest Day 1 in Bali 4 years ago, this event has influenced the UNFCCC negotiations.

The opening plenary was given by Dan Nepstad, who serves as director of WHRC’s partner institution IPAM’s International Program. Dan offered a scientific perspective on how forest research is crucial to demonstrating the vulnerabilities of the global forest ecosystems to climate disruption and how the positive feedbacks accelerate forest degradation through droughts and fires. Following that, additional speakers included the Director of Mexico’s Forestry Service CONAFOR, Eduardo Rojas-Briales. Then Mexico’s President Calderon addressed the large plenary session! His presence underlined the importance his government attributes to forests in the climate system in particular, but also to the livelihood of humankind in general. In his passionate remarks, President Calderon pointed out that he is very interested in the subject matter, having grown up in the part of Mexico where the monarch butterfly arrives every year. President Calderon said that he received a great love for the environment from his father, and that one of his hobbies is planting trees. He is convinced that Mexico can achieve 0% deforestation rate and move Mexico into re-growing forests. He pointed out a false dilemma – it isn’t a choice between fighting climate change or fighting poverty – and emphasized that the key is to build the bridge by building public policies which gives income to the poorest people who live in and protect the forests. He also emphasized a key area where WHRC is engaged in: Measurement, Reporting, and Verification, (MRV). His speech culminated in the motto of the day, “We need to take action now." He said he would work hard to incorporate REDD+ into the long-term cooperative action (LCA) agreements.

The rest of the day had many additional highlights, including a keynote address by Sir Nicolas Stern, and an update on the REDD negotiations which we now expect to have a positive outcome here in the Cancun negotiations. In the closing session the new Google Earth Engine platform for analysis of satellite data got introduced by Rebecca Moore showing results from using the WHRC’s forest measurement protocol.

Throughout Forest Day 4, WHRC’s long-term research program on local-to-global-scale forest ecosystem research was on display in scientific poster presentations and at our booth. We also had many excellent conversations on the issues. At the end of day, time was too short to catch up with all our colleagues and collaborators. Also, new connections were made, and ideas for future collaborations were initiated. Francis Seymour summed the day up: The science is strong and scary, but progress is being made on all fronts to move the issues forward.

Josef Kellndorfer
Associate Scientist

 

Saturday, December 4, 2010:

Saturday included the first "Agriculture and Rural Development Day" at the COP, sponsored by a number of different international organizations and donors.  It will likely become a significant annual event, complementing "Forest Day" in the REDD+ arena. The main objective of the conference is to influence climate change negotiations and advocates for a decision on a “working program for agriculture.” Climate change, food security, and development were the focus of the presentations, posters and round tables.  

Land use change associated with agriculture is a major sector contributing to CO2 emissions, but it is also one of the most important sectors to potentially mitigate climate change through improved low-carbon farming practices and other approaches to keep carbon fixed in soils. One of the plenary speakers noted that "farmers are carbon and nitrogen managers" and are ready to work on harvesting and keeping carbon in soils, but they need the support and positive policy signals.

One of the things that struck me was that few people who regularly attend "forest day" attended "agriculture day" (except the WHRC scientists!) and this division between the forest and agriculture sectors is the same I observed in many less developed countries. A better integration of these two would help to achieve REDD+ objectives by helping to bridge the gap between the various communities. REDD+ is not just about forests;  it's about carbon management, development and addressing poverty, so agriculture and rural development must be carefully considered, even if it is even more complicated than forest activities. Additional information is available at http://www.agricultureday.org/marketplace-and-exhibition.

Nadine Laporte
Associate Scientist

 

Friday, December 3, 2010:

I’m now back in Woods Hole, reflecting on the week I spent in Cancun at my first COP meeting. The meeting had a very different feel from a typical scientific conference in that there was an overarching objective other than just the quest for knowledge. It was a remarkable collection of people, organizations, and causes, all thrown together in hopes of making progress toward combating climate change.

It was fascinating to see how the staff of the Woods Hole Research Center operated in this realm. WHRC was clearly well known to many of the participants. While it has always been clear that the success of the Woods Hole Research Center is dependent on our staff, it was equally clear in Cancun that our success is due to our many collaborators and funders. The dinner hosted by WHRC on Thursday night, attended by ~70 people, was a great opportunity to acknowledge and thank many of our collaborators, funders, and friends from around the world. This was a time for conversation among our many fascinating guests. They have my best wishes for the second week of the COP meeting – hopefully substantial progress will be made.

Robert Max Holmes
Senior Scientist

 

Thursday December 2, 2010:

On this, the fourth official day of COP 16, the WHRC delegation is now present in full force with 16 bright-eyed staff members attending a special early (7:00 am) edition of the morning team briefing.  Why so early?  Well, I assure you it wasn't to allow for a post-briefing dip in the Caribbean (conditions this morning were actually quite blustery with red flags posted up and down the beach, warning of the hazardous surf and dangerous currents).  In fact, the WHRC team was fully assembled just in time to host the first of a number of major Center sponsored events. Today's function consisted of a day-long workshop for decision makers, civil society, and other stakeholders titled Integrating Science into International Climate Policy.  The workshop, which included four separate sessions featuring a range of WHRC scientists, presented a tremendous opportunity for scientific information-exchange and discussion on key issues relevant to the climate negotiations happening just a short drive away.  Topics covered during the course of the day ranged from the role of rivers in the carbon balance (Max & Skee) to the co-benefits of forest conservation (Scott, Claudia, Glenn & collaborators) to various perspectives on forest measuring, reporting and verification  (Josef, Andrea, Nora & collaborators).  (As a side note, MRV is definitely in the running for the "Most Used Acronym Award" among WHRC scientists if not among all COP participants).

 

As is often the case in events like these, the most engaging and enriching portions of the day were the periods dedicated to discussion following each session.  That's not to say that the array of WHRC and collaborator presentations were anything but stellar (because they were absolutely top-notch!).  However, it is during the discussion periods that thought-provoking and sometimes difficult-to-answer questions emerge: "What is the ultimate fate of carbon being transferred by rivers from land to the oceans?" "How can we move the science of forest measurement forward at a pace consistent with the urgent needs of stakeholders?" "How can we achieve better coordination and collaboration between governments, NGOs and local communities where MRV implementation is concerned?"  These are the sorts of challenging scientific and policy questions that WHRC staff grapple with every day. Forums of this sort benefit both participants and our staff through the transfer of information and ideas that takes place as well as the relationships and collaborations that are borne.

The day's activities would not end, however, with the completion of a very successful workshop, as the workshop was just the first of two major WHRC events on the day.  A dinner for distinguished guests of WHRC (including donors, collaborators, and other friends of the Center) would be the second important event, requiring the staff to quickly change gears (and attire!) from science to socializing. 

Wayne Walker
Assistant Scientist

 

Wednesday, December 1, 2010:

One of the first things that reminded me that this wasn’t Copenhagen was how empty the coat check was when I walked into the official UN venue. But that’s not all. I was curious before arriving to see how different this UNFCCC conference would be from the highly attended COP 15 last year, my first COP and one that gathered more heads of state than any other international meeting. Logistics is always a topic of interest among conference participants and many speak about two-hour bus rides to get in to the official venues.

 

Mexico chose Cancun as the host city for its ease of security; there is plenty of it. Though with the negotiations and side-events being held in separate venues, 8 km from one other, it makes for a difficult commute to events and gives an air of some division between civil society observers and the negotiating processes. This may become a common theme for the UNFCCC as NGOs were largely excluded from the final negotiating sessions of Copenhagen in 2009. Nevertheless, despite long commutes, and low expectations for an actual climate deal, there is a lot of momentum and passion when speaking with delegates about progress in REDD, an area where WHRC scientists have been highly engaged. 

Danielle Knight
Administrative/Research Assistant

 

Tuesday, November 30, 2010:

For the WHRC scientists who focus on REDD+, myself included, these first days are usually about getting up to speed with what the latest policy developments are, where the weight of interest lies in different policy directions and figuring out how to get involved. Daily updates at our morning meeting by Nora on the negotiations certainly help. However, a key entry point remains developing one’s conference network, locating current colleagues, reestablishing old contacts and establishing new ones in order to get the low-down on policy organization and logistics.

One important task is letting people know about WHRC events to garner interest from different quarters about how our science can help to move the debate and policy decisions along to some greater or lesser extent. By focusing on our workshop and dinner on the 2nd of December, we have been building interest in these events. This is no mean feat as the weight of competing interesting sessions and side events is enormous and requires a lot of gentle coaxing and following up in person or by mail to get confirmation. But these are key opportunities to get new parties involved with our work. We expect attendance not only from our usual supporters, but new and potential partners. The side events program has started in earnest, and the booths in the Cancunmesse are full to bursting with interesting and reasoned material as well as the occasional more creative attempts to highlight the seriousness and urgency of the climate change challenge. We trust that these combined efforts will bring us a big step closer to a binding climate treaty by 2012 … only time will tell.

Glenn K. Bush
Assistant Scientist

 

Monday, November 29, 2010:

Today marks the first official day of the conference. After our team briefing, Nora departed bright and early again for meetings starting at 9 and lasting well into the evening. Max Holmes, who is attending his first COP and looking forward to seeing what this is like in person, arrived mid-morning, and he, Danielle Knight, and I headed over to the Cancunmesse venue. There, we encountered a few delays – Max in the line to get his badge, and Danielle and I in retrieving our materials from the exhibit area. Max made it through, and while we weren’t able to get our boxes, Danielle and I did staff our information booth, talking with government delegates, collaborators, other NGO attendees, and a few undergraduate students about our upcoming workshop, our side event with Duke University’s Nicholas Institute, and the Center’s work in general. Several of my colleagues will be attending a welcome event hosted by Mexico this evening, and others of us have already returned to work on materials we will need for tomorrow.

 

The first few days of the conference are always a time to ramp up for the hectic pace of later this week and next. It’s easy to see that more and more delegates are getting into town, as the buses are more crowded, the hotel lobby and restaurants a little more full. Our organization and preparation for these two weeks has happened over the last several months, and it’s been a true team effort. We’re ready, and it’s exciting to be here!

Elizabeth Braun
Director of Communications

 

Sunday, November 28, 2010:

Even breakfast at the hotel restaurant offers an opportunity to see part of the policy process in action. Over my cup of coffee, to my left, I noticed a well-known climate scientist enjoying his breakfast in the company of his laptop. From the table in front of me drifted phrases such as “CDM” and “flexible mechanisms”, while the group of Canadians across the room discussed the day’s upcoming meetings.

Thus began the final day of preparations before the start of the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Cancun, Mexico. The WHRC delegation is converging on Cancun along with tens of thousands of negotiators, government officials, observers, and other stakeholders to continue working towards a global solution to climate change under the UNFCCC. I spent the morning and much of the afternoon meeting with collaborators and colleagues to fine-tune our messages and goals for the next two weeks. While perhaps expectations for what can be accomplished here may be low, the stakes are very high. Our work is a key component of an informed climate policy process, and I hope that our events and interactions of the next few weeks yield real results. We will have to just wait and see how this all unfolds.

Nora Greenglass
Research Associate, Policy