Ecuador is home to approximately 11 million hectares of diverse forest lands covering approximately 55% of the entire country. Ecuador’s ministry of environment estimates that the deforestation rate of Ecuador is around 198,000 hectares per year. Therefore, in the hopes of combatting forest loss, combating climate change and having good governance of forest resources, Ecuador became a partner country with the UN-REDD programme in October of 2009.
As an early country partner to the UN-REDD Programme, Ecuador's REDD+ process has benefited from UN-REDD results based finance support since 2009. As a result of this support, Ecuador is the second country in the world to complete all the requirements to receive results-based payments for REDD+ set out in the UNFCCC (second only to Brazil).
The programme aided Ecuador in developing technical inputs and facilitating consultations with stakeholders in the development of Ecuador’s National REDD+ Action Plan. The plan includes policies and measures that the government has implementing to address deforestation, forest degradation and carbon stock enhancement. The 5 key areas that were prioritized are: Land use and institutional management policies, Transition to sustainable development, Forest management and increased value of forests, forest restoration and monitoring safeguards and knowledge management. As the plan indicates, Ecuador was also able to create and implement a national forest monitoring system and developed their own forest reference emission level (FREL). Allowing them to gain better management of their forests.
With the aid of around 50 million dollars from various UN-REDD related programmes. Ecuador was able to accomplish all of its goals in its National Action plan and has resulted in a reduction of 28 megatons of CO2 from projected numbers from 2008-2014. Deforestation rates have also been slowed down throughout the years.
Pros:
Mitigation of climate change and protection of biodiversity and watersheds
REDD+ is dependent upon local communities and provides sustainable livelihoods for the people who are forest dependent
Past communities that were neglected may gain a voice in the political process in regards to REDD+
Cons:
There is no international definition of sustainable forest management
Diverse legal systems govern the world’s forests and in many countries ownership is not always clear
Corruption and carbon fraud – Only Brazil and Costa Rica have governance institutions out of 10 of the largest tropical forest countries with the capacity to set up REDD+
It is not clear how REDD+ should be financed and is usually more expensive than estimates predict
Proper management of REDD+ is difficult and needs to be monitored carefully.
Carbon Tax
Canada and the Carbon Tax
Carbon tax is a stable pollution tax where the government places a fee on the production, distribution or use of fossil fuels based on how much carbon is emitted (per ton). Evidently, this strategy works especially well in MEDCs and countries with stable economies and governments. It encourages the use of more energy-efficient methods and a reduction in consumption for corporations and individuals, while at the same time promoting non-fossil fuels as well. In addition, since the price is largely fixed, there is clear economic benefit in attempting to reduce greenhouse gasses.
Carbon tax has been employed in many locations already, including the UK and Canada. For example, the carbon tax enacted by British Columbia, since 2008, has had a significant effect in decreasing carbon emissions without impacting the province’s economic growth. It began at $10 per metric ton of CO2 and continued to rise $10 every subsequent year until 2012. As Canada’s third most populous province, over the past seven years, the province saw a 3.5x faster decrease in per capita emissions than the rest of the country.
Canada’s carbon tax plan was put in place in 2018, with a national carbon price - a minimum of $10 per metric ton of CO2 initially, which will increase annually by $10/tonne to reach $50 in 2022. This highlights an issue with the tax, as it must continue to rise in order to put enough pressure on consumers and businesses to continue lowering carbon emissions. However, in this case, a combination with increasing carbon tax to reduce GHG emissions and a decrease in provincial sales tax from 7% to 6% and annual rebates allows for the same effect while also protecting low-income households.
As such, as countries continually develop to the point where such an option is viable, carbon taxing holds much potential for the world in slowing climate change.
Nevertheless, it is important to implement the tax slowly as not to cause negative consequences for the economy, and equally, as to reduce competitiveness between different states or provinces within the country. This is particularly troublesome in the USA, since it is composed of states with varying levels of potential in relation to carbon taxing. It would be hard for any one state to push its carbon tax too high as to not result in concerns over competitive advantage against, for example, states more reliant on fossil fuels. Main issues include certain states’ ideologies, such as those in Arkansas who dislike the notion of increased electricity prices, or legal affairs, such as in Oregon, where carbon taxing was rejected in favor of developing the state’s renewable energy sources; these are difficult boundaries to cross, especially considering Trump’s view that it would be unnecessary.
Pros:
Mitigation of climate change
If well-planned, the economy will remain unaffected
Increased revenue that could also be spent on reducing pollution levels
Easy way to incentivize businesses to reduce GHG emissions and promote renewable energy
Cons:
Too high a tax leading to backlash and discouraged businesses
Encourage tax fraud and evasion
Easy for larger corporations to shift production to countries without a carbon tax
Administration costs are present when collecting taxes
Henry Liu, Kevin Sun, Louis Zhang, Yiming Zhang | CGW4UE | G.Bell | March 21, 2019