“Gabon is well on the way to fulfil all requirements to become eligible to obtain and receive payments for results-based REDD+ actions”: Interview with Dirk Nemitz, UNFCCC Secretariat
Gabon plans to issue 90 million REDD credits before COP27. REDD-Monitor asked the UNFCCC Secretariat some questions about how these credits are generated.
Gabon is planning the world’s biggest ever issue of carbon credits. Bloomberg recently reported that Gabon is planning to sell 90 million carbon credits before COP27 in Egypt. According to Lee White, Gabon’s environmental minister, the credits will be ready by early October 2022.
White told Bloomberg that, “Much of Africa is looking at this this sale as a litmus test” of whether rich countries and corporations are going to pay tropical countries to preserve their forests. “Is the developed world serious or not?” White asks.
But Gabon is doing little or nothing to reduce deforestation. White even argues that logging is good for the forests. “Selective logging can encourage more carbon capture in the long run than no logging at all,” he says, “because it allows light to reach the forest floor, which in turn stimulates more tree growth”.
White is strangely silent on the damage that logging does to forests, particularly through the construction of roads to extract the timber. In Gabon, 60% of the country’s roads are logging roads and 44% of the forests are logging concessions.
Bloomberg comments that, “some market participants have warned that it isn’t yet clear how corporate buyers will perceive the credits and their quality may be questioned”.
Gabon’s carbon credits are to be sold via the Coalition for Rainforest Nations’ redd.plus platform. In a recent article, Federica Bietta, Managing Director of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations described Gabon’s carbon credits as “sovereign carbon credits achieved under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism”.
REDD-Monitor sent some questions to the UNFCCC Secretariat in Bonn about Gabon’s proposed issue of carbon credits, and whether Bietta’s description was accurate. Dirk Nemitz, team leader of the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use unit, replied.
Before answering REDD-Monitor’s questions, Nemitz made the following clarification:
The UNFCCC secretariat supports the implementation of REDD+ decisions as agreed by Parties in the Warsaw Framework for REDD+ (WFR). The WFR has received special recognition by inclusion in paragraph 5.2 of the Paris Agreement. Given the mandates provided by the COP and the CMA, there are certain terminologies used in your questions that we would not use, for example, referring to a “REDD+ mechanism” or “credits”, both of which are not used or defined in the WFR.
The interview, which was carried out by email, is posted here in full and unedited.
REDD-Monitor: Bloomberg reports that Gabon “is working with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s REDD+ mechanism to create the credits”. How exactly is Gabon working with the UNFCCC’s REDD+ mechanism? Could you please describe what role the UNFCCC is playing in the issue of Gabon’s carbon credits.
Dirk Nemitz: Gabon is well on the way to fulfil all requirements laid out in decision 9/CP.19 to become eligible to obtain and receive payments for results-based REDD+ actions. Gabon has submitted a forest reference level and the UNFCCC secretariat has coordinated a technical assessment of the reference level by two independent LULUCF experts nominated to the UNFCCC roster of experts, with the outcome being published in document FCCC/TAR/2021/GAB. Gabon has also submitted REDD+ results in a technical annex to its biennial update report, and the UNFCCC secretariat is currently coordinating a technical analysis of the results by two independent LULUCF experts nominated to the UNFCCC roster of experts. Gabon has further already submitted a summary of its safeguards information system. Once the technical analysis of REDD+ results is completed, the only missing component would be the submission of a REDD+ national strategy or action plan. The UNFCCC secretariat further has a mandate to make all information available via the UNFCCC REDD+ Web Platform, where you can also find Gabon’s country page with links to all submissions and documents.
REDD-Monitor: The carbon credits will be marketed by redd.plus, a collaboration that includes the Coalition for Rainforest Nations. In a recent article, Federica Bietta, Managing Director of CfRN, describes Gabon’s carbon credits as “sovereign carbon credits achieved under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism”. Could you please confirm that this is a legitimate description of Gabon’s carbon credits. Was CfRN involved in negotiations with the UNFCCC REDD+ mechanism before announcing that it was issuing “UNFCCC credits”? If so, could you please provide copies of any documentation regarding these negotiations.
Dirk Nemitz: Once a Party has all requirements in place in accordance with decision 9/CP.19, it becomes eligible to obtain and receive payments for results-based REDD+ actions. It will also receive an entry in the UNFCCC Lima REDD+ Information Hub. Noting that such payments “may come from a wide variety of sources, public and private, bilateral and multilateral, including alternative sources” in accordance with decision 2/CP.17, the UNFCCC secretariat is not involved in any negotiations on results-based payments between donors and REDD+ countries. Parties noted that the Lima REDD+ Information Hub aims to increase transparency of information on results-based actions and on the corresponding payments, and decided that it will contain information on the quantity of results for which payments were received and the entity paying for results.
REDD-Monitor: In February 2021, Gabon submitted a “Proposed National REDD+ Forest Reference Level” for technical review to the UNFCCC. In October 2021, Gabon submitted a “Proposed Modified National REDD+ Forest Reference Level” for technical review to the UNFCCC. Has Gabon’s Forest Reference Level now been accepted by the UNFCCC? What were the main changes between the February and October versions? What process was involved between these two versions – did the UNFCCC REDD+ Mechanism submit comments to Gabon about its first Forest Reference Level? Are these comments publicly available? If so, please send me a copy, and if they are not publicly available, why not?
Dirk Nemitz: The technical assessment of forest reference levels has two main objectives in accordance with the annex to decision 13/CP.19: a) To assess the degree to which information provided by Parties is in accordance with the guidelines for submissions agreed by Parties; and b) To offer a facilitative, non-intrusive, technical exchange of information on the construction of forest reference levels with a view to supporting the capacity of developing country Parties for the construction and future improvements. As such, the possibility of making a modified forest reference level submission based on initial exchanges with the technical assessment team is an integrative and valuable part of the process of technical assessment, as laid out in paragraph 14 of the annex to decision 13/CP.19. The original submission, the modified submission and the technical assessment report with details on the exchanges between the Party and the assessment team are available on the UNFCCC REDD+ Web Platform. In regard to changes between the February and October submission, the technical assessment report includes among other the following explanation:
In footnote 12: “The difference between the original and the modified submission is due mostly to the inclusion of the dead organic matter pool and post-deforestation carbon stocks in forest land converted to cropland and grassland.”
In paragraph 47: “The AT notes that the transparency and completeness of the information provided were significantly improved in the modified FRL submission, without having to alter the approach or values used to construct the FRL, and commends Gabon on its efforts. The new information provided in the modified submission, including the spreadsheets containing detailed information on how the estimates of CO2 emissions from all REDD+ activities were calculated, increased the reproducibility of the FRL calculations.”
REDD-Monitor: According to the UNFCCC REDD+ Web Platform, in 2021, Gabon’s “assessed forest reference level” stood at -96,468,186 t CO2 eq/year. Please outline how this figure was calculated – is it a UNFCCC REDD+ mechanism calculation, or was it supplied by Gabon?
Dirk Nemitz: Forest reference levels are always submitted by the Party. A Party may choose to submit a modified reference level, in particular where the assessment team finds that the original submission is not fully in accordance with the guidelines for submissions contained in the annex to decision 12/CP.17, in accordance with the scope of the technical assessment contained in paragraph 2 of the annex to decision 13/CP.19.
REDD-Monitor: Can any country generate “UNFCCC credits” simply by comparing the actual rate of deforestation with the figures submitted by that country to the UNFCCC in its forest reference level?
Dirk Nemitz: As explained in the response to question 1, calculation of REDD+ results entered in the Lima REDD+ Info Hub require two steps: the submission of a forest reference level and a technical assessment of the submission (decision 13/CP.19), and the submission of results that are methodologically consistent with the forest reference level submission, are submitted in a technical annex of the biennial update report, and are subject to a separate technical analysis process.
REDD-Monitor: How many people are employed by the UNFCCC REDD+ Mechanism to analyse and approve Forest Reference Level documents and other documents submitted by countries to the REDD+ Web Platform?
Dirk Nemitz: The “agriculture, forestry and other land-use unit” consists of 5 staff members and is responsible for a wide range of activities related to land-use, including support to the intergovernmental process related to REDD+ activities. This includes the coordination of the technical assessment of forest reference levels and of the technical analysis of REDD+ results. Both processes are undertaken by two different teams consisting of two independent experts nominated to the UNFCCC roster of experts by third parties, one from a developing country and one from a developed country. As in other UNFCCC review processes of national submissions, experts are not remunerated for their work.
REDD-Monitor: Given that Article 6 of the Paris Agreement has not yet been finalised, can Gabon legally sell carbon credits advertised as “UNFCCC credits” before the COP27 meeting in Egypt?
Dirk Nemitz: Receiving results-based payments for REDD+ actions in accordance with decision 9/CP.19 and Article 5.2 of the Paris Agreement does not require use of Article 6 in any way, as long as it does not involve the use of internationally transferred mitigation outcomes towards nationally determined contributions introduced in Article 6.2 nor of the mechanism introduced in Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement. Some examples for results-based payments are already included in the Lima REDD+ Info Hub.