Dossier Climate change: FAQs
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General questions on climate change
- 1.What is climate and how does it differ from weather?
- 2.What is climate change?
- 3.What is the “greenhouse effect” and how does it affect climate?
- 4.What causes climate change?
- 5.What are the impacts of climate change?
- 6.Will countries with an emission target meet their Kyoto target?
General questions on climate policy
- 7.What is the Kyoto Protocol?
- 8.What's the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)?
- 9.Will countries with an emission target meet their Kyoto target?
- 10.Which are the top-20 CO2 or GHG emitting countries?
Questions on abrupt climate change
- 11.What is thermohaline circulation?
- 12.What is "abrupt climate change”?
- 13.How can global warming make things cooler?
Questions related to the Conference of the Parties (COP)
- 14.What is at stake in Copenhagen?
- 15.What is the Clean Development Mechanism?
- 16.What is the EU’s proposal for emission reduction targets by 2020?
- 17.Which targets have countries proposed for themselves for 2020?
- 18.Why did Dutch and European climate policymakers choose the long-term target of limiting climate change to a maximum, average global temperature increase of 2 degree Celsius?
- 19.What is the Adaptation Fund?
- 20.What is REDD?
- Question 20
- What is REDD?
- Answer
REDD is the UN collaborative programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in developing countries. According to the FAO, deforestation, mainly from conversion of forests to agricultural land, continues at an alarming rate of approximately 13 million hectares per year (for the 1990-2005 period). Deforestation results in an immediate release of the carbon originally stored in the trees as CO2 emissions (with small amounts of CO and CH4), particularly if the trees are burned, and in the slower release of emissions from the decay of organic matter. The IPCC Working Group III (2007) estimated emissions from deforestation in the 1990s to be 5.8 Gt CO2/yr. The IPCC also noted that reducing and/or preventing deforestation is the mitigation option with the largest and most immediate carbon stock impact, in the short term, per hectare and per year, globally, as the release of carbon as emissions into the atmosphere is prevented. A recently published study concluded that present emissions from deforestation may be somewhat lower than estimated by the IPCC, but that CO2 emissions from tropical peatlands add approximately ¼ to the deforestation emissions.
More information
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UN-REDD Programme
UNFCCC REDD Web Platform(Methods)
CO2 emissions from forest loss
