REDD, PINC, and Other Shades of Green: Institutional Requirements for an International Forest Carbon Sequestration Treaty in a Post-Kyoto World

As the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change moves closer to an agreement on reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation, more attention must be paid to the institutions that would support an international forest carbon sequestration (IFCS) program. This article identifies key support services that are needed for any IFCS agreement, such as (1) a platform for negotiation and information provision, (2) monitoring and verification of carbon stocks, and (3) dispute resolution. The UNFCCC has not yet selected and designed a particular IFCS program, however. Different programs use different funding streams, calculate carbon savings in different ways, and present different types of risk to individual nations and the international community. These differences have implications for the type of support services needed to support different IFCS programs. This article examines three possible IFCS models to assess the way that IFCS program design affects the key support services needed, and presents a framework for analysis that allows policymakers to recognize the tradeoffs inherent in any set of institutional choices, and select institutions that will support a continued role for IFCS in combating climate change.