Green Gigaton Challenge is a global initiative by Emergent and the UN-REDD Programme - supported by the Environmental Defense Fund, Forest Trends and the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions - to catalyse funding for one gigaton of high-quality emissions reductions a year from forests by 2025.
Green Gigaton Challenge brings together a coalition of public, private and philanthropic partners to channel funds into efforts led by national and subnational governments to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). Through utilizing donor-funded floor prices for results-based payments and facilitating and leveraging private sector demand above these floor prices, the Green Gigaton Challenge will support forest countries to achieve their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and increase ambition, while helping companies complement their internal emissions reductions with high-quality carbon credits.
“The Green Gigaton Challenge aims to break the stalemate on the contribution from forests to close the emission gap by 2030, ensure biodiversity conservation and a green recovery from Covid-19. By achieving one gigaton a year of emission reduction, it will make a significant contribution to keeping global warming below 2°C and do so in a cost-effective way. Ultimately, the Challenge offers a concrete framework to leverage public and private finance for large-scale and high-quality forest protection and restoration,“ Susan Gardner, Director, Ecosystems Division.
One gigaton of annual emissions reductions is equivalent to taking 80% of the cars of American roads. That is enough cars to circle the earth 24 times or to stand in 10 lanes from Cairo to Cape Town. One gigaton of annual emissions reductions from REDD+ is the order of what is needed to cost-effectively achieve the current Paris Agreement pledges. One gigaton per year could enable more than twice as many further reductions at no added global cost compared to implementing current Paris pledges without international collaboration on REDD+.
Green Gigaton Challenge will engage both governments and companies to increase investments in REDD+. Emergent will be responsible for structuring transactions of high-quality emission reductions, while UN-REDD will work with interested forest countries to build their capacities to produce high-quality emission reductions.
