How do we fund just transitions to low-carbon economies? 

This is the biggest question hanging over every climate solution meeting and conference. It will hang over the New York Climate Week underway now and then the first UN climate summit to be held in the Amazon–COP30–in November. 

There is an answer to this funding question for tropical forest regions, where most emissions come not from fossil fuel combustion but from deforestation and forest degradation. It is called “Jurisdictional REDD+” (JREDD+). And the main barrier to its broad implementation is the lack of understanding of what it is, how it works and who benefits; in fact, most articles on forest carbon credits do not distinguish between JREDD+ and project-level REDD+, even though they are fundamentally different.

I am delighted to share our new article to help set the record straight on Jurisdictional REDD+ as a mechanism that is supporting and funding just transitions in tropical forest regions. This builds on our previous publications explaining JREDD+ and how it is being put to work, especially in the Amazon and Cerrado regions of Brazil. JREDD+ is the lynchpin of a potential “Amazon Forest Climate Solution”, for example, that could reduce twice the emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by 2030 as the entire EU is on track to reduce over the same time period.

Roughly half of the South American continent is within the boundaries of a nation or subnational jurisdiction (states, provinces, departments) that is implementing or developing Jurisdictional REDD+ programs.  It is an essential complement to the new global funding mechanisms under development, such as the Tropical Forest Forever Facility.

Credit: IMC/Government of Acre collection