By Carbon Finance Online

The Norwegian government is to invest around $1.4 million to pilot a “breakthrough” jurisdictional and nested (JNR) avoided deforestation framework, using new Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) requirements.

The government is to fund a national-level JNR pilot in Costa Rica, and sub-national programmes in Brazil, Peru and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The JNR approach is designed to help develop programmes and projects that reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and that address sustainable forestry practices (REDD+).

But crucially, says VCS chief executive David Antonioli, governments using the JNR framework could measure reductions, and potentially generate carbon credits, from policies or jurisdiction-level programmes, rather than simply from individual projects.

“To date, you’ve had two unrelated systems – bottom-up REDD+ projects, and so-called REDD-readiness programmes,” with the majority of international donor financing going to these latter, government-level initiatives, said Antonioli, who is based in Washington, DC. “We’ve set something up to allow the two to link.”

“By tapping the VCS JNR framework, pilot programmes will be able to link the development of national and subnational REDD+ policies and measures and establish a pathway for producing high-quality verified emission reductions,” he explained.

Summer Montacute, REDD+ coordinator at VCS, said some 12 jurisdictions around the world have expressed interest in using the JNR.

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