506
J. A. Dar et al.
to one tonne of carbon dioxide. Aside from the above mechanisms, voluntary carbon
markets have also played an important role in climate change mitigation. Voluntary
carbon markets were created outside of regulation by governments by firms and individuals, who buy carbon offsets voluntarily to reduce their production of greenhouse
gases (Shahbol et al. 2018).
The negotiation of a legal binding, The Paris Agreement at CoP-21 was a very significant step towards climate change mitigation, which came effective since November 2016. The agreement’s main aimed to keep a global temperature rise this century
well below 2 °C and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. The Article 5 of the Paris Agreement
stresses on the crucial role of forests in mitigating the emission of greenhouse gases
(Bettinger et al. 2017; Mitchard 2018). All the countries individually determined and
submitted their Intended National Determined Contributions (INDCs), which later
became National Determined Contributions (NDCs), with the ratification of the Paris
Agreement (Grassi et al. 2012, 2017). Later, the CoP-23 witnessed many important
developments such as ‘Ministerial on Climate Action’ by China, ‘Powering Past Coal
Alliance’ by UK and Canada, Talanoa dialogue, etc.
Besides this, the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate
was signed by the United States, Canada, Australia, India, China, South Korea and
Japan in 2005, which together account for about 50% of the global greenhouse gas
emissions. The main objective of this partnership was to work together with private
sectors towards achieving their goals on energy security, reduction of air pollution as
well as climate change via methods that would support sustainable development of
their national economies and curb poverty (Raufer and Iyer 2012). Emphasizing on
the significance of climate change, IPCC has so far published five assessment reports
and is now in the process of producing the sixth report based on the assessments
of their three working groups and a Task Force. IPCC’s global scientific authority
published a new report on October 8, 2018 stating that the Earth’s temperature would
warm 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels by 2030 leading to the increased incidence
of extreme droughts, floods, wildfires, and widespread food shortages.
Recognizing the crucial role of forests in climate change mitigation, an initiative
of UNFCCC called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) was framed in 2008 to provide economic incentives to the forest-rich
developing countries to help in carbon sequestration (Kishwan et al. 2009; Sheikh
et al. 2011). Later, it was extended as REDD+ to include conservation of forests,
sustainable forest management and enhancement of carbon stocks and succeed in
reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (Bettinger et al. 2017).
To emphasize the forestry sector, the New York Declaration on Forests signed by
192 organizations (inclusive of 40 governments) in 2014 to reduce the rate of loss
of natural forests globally by 2020, strive to end natural forest loss by 2030 and
to restore the currently deforested or degraded land with in stipulated time frame
(Mitchard 2018). Also, the process of forest certification (green certification) has
also gained prominence in the recent decades, which is related with the assesses and
certifies the quality of forest management as per predetermined factors to promotes
J. A. Dar et al.
to one tonne of carbon dioxide. Aside from the above mechanisms, voluntary carbon
markets have also played an important role in climate change mitigation. Voluntary
carbon markets were created outside of regulation by governments by firms and individuals, who buy carbon offsets voluntarily to reduce their production of greenhouse
gases (Shahbol et al. 2018).
The negotiation of a legal binding, The Paris Agreement at CoP-21 was a very significant step towards climate change mitigation, which came effective since November 2016. The agreement’s main aimed to keep a global temperature rise this century
well below 2 °C and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. The Article 5 of the Paris Agreement
stresses on the crucial role of forests in mitigating the emission of greenhouse gases
(Bettinger et al. 2017; Mitchard 2018). All the countries individually determined and
submitted their Intended National Determined Contributions (INDCs), which later
became National Determined Contributions (NDCs), with the ratification of the Paris
Agreement (Grassi et al. 2012, 2017). Later, the CoP-23 witnessed many important
developments such as ‘Ministerial on Climate Action’ by China, ‘Powering Past Coal
Alliance’ by UK and Canada, Talanoa dialogue, etc.
Besides this, the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate
was signed by the United States, Canada, Australia, India, China, South Korea and
Japan in 2005, which together account for about 50% of the global greenhouse gas
emissions. The main objective of this partnership was to work together with private
sectors towards achieving their goals on energy security, reduction of air pollution as
well as climate change via methods that would support sustainable development of
their national economies and curb poverty (Raufer and Iyer 2012). Emphasizing on
the significance of climate change, IPCC has so far published five assessment reports
and is now in the process of producing the sixth report based on the assessments
of their three working groups and a Task Force. IPCC’s global scientific authority
published a new report on October 8, 2018 stating that the Earth’s temperature would
warm 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels by 2030 leading to the increased incidence
of extreme droughts, floods, wildfires, and widespread food shortages.
Recognizing the crucial role of forests in climate change mitigation, an initiative
of UNFCCC called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) was framed in 2008 to provide economic incentives to the forest-rich
developing countries to help in carbon sequestration (Kishwan et al. 2009; Sheikh
et al. 2011). Later, it was extended as REDD+ to include conservation of forests,
sustainable forest management and enhancement of carbon stocks and succeed in
reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (Bettinger et al. 2017).
To emphasize the forestry sector, the New York Declaration on Forests signed by
192 organizations (inclusive of 40 governments) in 2014 to reduce the rate of loss
of natural forests globally by 2020, strive to end natural forest loss by 2030 and
to restore the currently deforested or degraded land with in stipulated time frame
(Mitchard 2018). Also, the process of forest certification (green certification) has
also gained prominence in the recent decades, which is related with the assesses and
certifies the quality of forest management as per predetermined factors to promotes