Over the last three years, projects that address the relationships between carbon and forests have moved from the sidelines of international climate action to center field. Forestry’s recent advancements are the product of decades of ongoing collaboration among market and environmental experts seeking to strike an ideal balance between forestry projects’ market risks and shared benefits. Market dynamics in 2011 demonstrated that these efforts have never been more pivotal, or complex, as forest carbon projects mature – and find themselves positioned squarely in the midst of some of today’s most challenging policy debates. This year, a record number of forest project developers and secondary market suppliers from around the world shared data about their projects and transactions. This third annual State of the Forest Carbon Markets tracks, reports, and analyzes trends in these responses. This information is primarily based on data collected from respondents to Ecosystem Marketplace’s 2011 forest carbon project developer’s survey, combined with data from the 2012 State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets report. The data and analysis that follow cover forest carbon activity in compliance carbon markets – including the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS), the New South …

This publication is the fourth in a series of knowledge publications prepared by the UNDP-GEF International Waters programme that document and highlight key results and achievements at the project and portfolio level, comprising four ‘signature’ programme areas: Large Marine Ecosystems; Lakes, Rivers and Aquifers; Integrated Water Resources and Coastal Area Management; and Global Programmes. The portfolio continues to make progress in sustaining the world’s most significant shared water systems for the billions of people who depend on these ecosystems for their livelihoods and security.

This report is intended as a resource for policy makers in developing countries to make informed policy decisions about the whether, when and how of FITs and to support nationally appropriate policy measures to scale up renewable energy. The report is also intended to improve the understanding of the potential benefits and challenges for developing countries to design FITs as well as the factors influencing their success, more in depth from the policy and legal foci, whilst also analysing the funding and capacity implications. Throughout the report, FITs are construed as interacting with national energy and non-energy policies in a dynamic manner.

The Green Economy is one in which the vital linkages among the economy, society, and environment are taken into account. This selection of articles and excerpts emerged in response to the need to fill the knowledge gap on practical, concrete, and on the ground green economy country experience. It is in this spirit that the articles and excerpts included in this publication have been selected: to provide information and knowledge for policy and decision makers and practitioners on the positive implications of greening some priority sectors, including job creation, resource efficiency, and generally contribution to sustainable development through an extensive review of scientific publications and magazines.

The guidebook provides an overview of NCFs and outlines six key components that are critical for the effective design and establishment of an NCF. It also presents a method for consolidating the decisions around these components into a term sheet that can help to facilitate stakeholder engagement for a robust and transparent design process.

This report – Green Carbon, Black Trade – by UNEP and INTERPOL focuses on illegal logging and its impacts on the lives and livelihoods of often some of the poorest people in the world set aside the environmental damage. It underlines how criminals are combining old fashioned methods such as bribes with high tech methods such as computer hacking of government web sites to obtain transportation and other permits. The report spotlights the increasingly sophisticated tactics being deployed to launder illegal logs through a web of palm oil plantations, road networks and saw mills.

The 6th “State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets” report shows a significant increase in demand from buyers in the US and major changes in the mix of offsets capturing market share, such as record sales of offsets from Asian wind farms and the coming-of-age of clean development projects in Africa.

The objective of ‘Green Economy in a Blue World’ is to analyse the challenges and opportunities of a potential transition towards a green economy in key sectors heavily linked to the marine and coastal environment – the blue world. The report will also analyse the necessary policy and institutional adjustments required for a green transition and will highlight several transformative action items that could come out of Rio+20 to accelerate transition to ocean sustainability. The key sectors (chapters) covered include Fisheries, Transport (shipping), Tourism (coastal), Energy, Marine mineral resources, and ocean nutrient pollution.

Developing Asia is the driver of today’s emissions intensive global economy. As the principal source of future emissions, the region is critical to the task of global climate change mitigation. Reflecting this global reality and a range of related domestic issues, the governments of the People’s Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Viet Nam have embarked upon an ambitious policy agenda. This report reviews the present and future policy settings for climate change mitigation and green growth in Asia’s major emerging economies. Although recent targets and commitments will involve a fundamental change in emissions trajectories, the urgency and extent of necessary global action requires ambition to be raised even further in developing Asia. An additional transformation will be required for the trajectory of emissions and energy demand, as well as the future composition of the power generation mix. Achieving these transformations will not be easy. There are a substantial number of policy instruments available, yet significant obstacles stand in the way of their effective deployment. Governments face a number of policy challenges, including: energy sector reform, economic reform, strengthening institutional capacity, and securing international support. The principal conclusion of this analysis is that the task facing Asia’s policymakers is …

The goal of this review is to identify ways to strengthen the links between scientific and technical knowledge with action on climate change adaptation. The study focuses on the impacts of climate change on agriculture and rural development, the two sectors thought to be most vulnerable. It draws on a literature review for context, but employs case study research as its main methodology.

The Chinese government attaches great importance to the issue of climate change.It defines the objectives, tasks and policy orientation of China’s response to climate change over the next five years and identifies key tasks, including controlling greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to climate change, and strengthening international cooperation.

.This report describes the evolution of China’s domestic climate-change policy over the period 1988-2011, using the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) to explore the policy change. Policy development has been gradual, with the most notable change occurring in 2007, when the National Climate Change Programme elevated climate change to a national policy issue.The ACF points to socioeconomic development and the Climate Change Advocacy Coalition’s policy-oriented learning as explanations for the development of climate-change policy in China.

The objectives of the survey of Asian cities are to determine:the status of climate change and other relevant plans for Asian cities and their focus on climate change adaptation versus mitigation, Where demand for climate change related infrastructure projects exists based on these plans, The role of development agencies and other development partners in prioritizing, planning and investing in urban infrastructure.