Furthermore, plot networks offer direct measurement of a tiny amount of actual forest [9], without an ability to report on spatially explicit carbon stocks and changes in those stocks (emissions).
We followed this guidance when reviewing and analyzing available forest area change data (Activity Data) and data on changes in carbon stocks (Emissions Factors) from transitions between forest land and other land uses [21].
Furthermore, plot networks offer direct measurement of a tiny amount of actual forest [ 9], without an ability to report on spatially explicit carbon stocks and changes in those stocks (emissions).
Likewise, future REDD policy designs will need to be based on comprehensive, international consistent and accurate spatially explicit data on global forest change and carbon stocks, emissions and trends.
We followed this guidance when reviewing and analyzing available forest area change data (Activity Data) and data on changes in carbon stocks (Emissions Factors) from transitions between forest land and other land uses [ 21].
Given the recent Decisions on REDD+, there is now an urgent need to assess and produce data on forest carbon stocks and forest carbon stock changes (Emission Factors or EF) on a country level with the direct objective of compiling a national GHG inventory and reporting it to the UNFCCC.
Results show the annual net changes in ecosystem carbon stocks, with negative numbers indicating a decrease in carbon stocks (an emission of carbon to the atmosphere) and positive numbers an increase in carbon stocks (carbon uptake from the atmosphere).
Yet, despite intensifying warnings from scientists over the past two decades, the new infrastructure even now being built is constructed along the same lines as the old, which means that there is a "lock-in" effect – high-carbon infrastructure built today or in the next five years will contribute as much to the stock of emissions in the atmosphere as previous generations.
The US is unhappy with agreeing so far in advance that the outcome of years of negotiations should be legally binding, and China has long refused to take on international legally binding commitments while insisting that developed countries should do so, arguing that the rich world bears responsibility for most of the stock of emissions now in the atmosphere.
The direct benefits of mitigation expenditure are related to whether it can significantly reduce the stock of emissions.
