California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced on Tuesday that his state has signed an agreement with Mexico and Brazil to combat climate change and protect tropical forests.

The agreement was signed at the Governors' Global Climate Summit 3 (GGCS 3), held in University of California, Davis in Southern California.

"Protecting the worlds' forests is critical in the global fight against climate change," said Schwarzenegger. "Today California is joining with two more extraordinary leaders in the fight to reduce emissions. With this groundbreaking agreement with Acre and Chiapas, we are taking action to protect our tropical forests."

Based on the progress made through the Governors' Climate and Forests Taskforce (GCF), Tuesday's groundbreaking agreement accelerates collaborative work on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and land degradation, Schwarzenegger said.

Under the MOU, a subnational Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) working group will develop recommendations with the ultimate goal of bringing subnational REDD programs into California's cap-and-trade program to allow California companies to use REDD credits for compliance. This achievement will serve the dual purpose of increasing the cost effectiveness of California's program and protecting tropical forestland, a critical element to combating climate change.

The working group will be established to develop REDD linkage recommendations that will provide the foundation for an eventual submittal to the California Air Resources Board as defined in California's cap-and-trade program. This group will convene in December 2010, with its first set of recommendations due in October 2011. The first meeting is expected to take place next month during the COP (Conference of Partners) 16 meeting in Cancun, Mexico.

GCF grew out of the first Governors' Global Climate Summit held in Los Angeles in 2008 and is a unique multi-jurisdictional collaborative effort between 14 states and provinces from Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and the U.S. focused on the development of rules and capabilities necessary to generate compliance-grade assets from REDD.

The GGCS 3 opened on Monday, with the participation of more Than 1,500 representatives from more than 80 states, provinces and countries are attending the summit under the theme of "Building the Green Economy."

Building on the accomplishments of the first two Governors' Global Climate Summits in 2009 and 2008, this year's summit was bringing together leaders from around the world to collaborate on environmental protection and further the global fight against climate change with collaborative actions to help reduce emissions and build the green economy.

The summit was one of the largest gatherings of regional leaders from around the world focused on climate solutions.

Source: Xinhua
2010-11-18