Emissions Reduction Program for 6 Northern Provinces

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Emissions Reduction Program for 6 Northern Provinces

In 2015, Lao PDR began efforts to apply to the FCPF’s Carbon Fund, to design a sub-national project to gain access to performance-based payments for emissions reduction. An initial concept was presented at a Carbon Fund meeting in Paris in March 2014, and then a concept paper (the Emissions Reduction-Project Identification Note, ER-PIN) at the Carbon Fund meeting in Brussels in October 2015.   The Lao ER-PIN proposes an emissions reduction program in six northern provinces with early actions, where REDD+ activities are under implementation with support from SUFORD-SU, JICA, CLiPAD, and the FCPF Readiness Project.

 

Justification for choice of area:

  • REDD+ will be rolled out nationally;
  • Covers approximately 35% of national territory;
  • Includes provinces with early actions towards results;
  • Accounted for 45% of all deforestation & degradation in 2000-2010;
  • Poorest region, with high rate of shifting cultivation.

At the latter meeting, the Carbon Fund accepted Lao PDR into the project pipeline. Once the Letter of Intent (LOI) is signed, the Carbon Fund will provide the World Bank with USD 625,000 to assist the country to prepare the Emissions Reduction Program Document (ER-PD). Lao PDR will have 18 months after signing the LOI to prepare the ER-Project Document. Then, to negotiate an ER-Program Agreement (ER-PA) with the Carbon Fund, Lao PDR will need to have its REDD+ Readiness Package assessed as being essentially completed. Thus, by late 2018, the ER-PD (sub-national) and the REDD+ Readiness Package (national-level) work need to be done.

The Lao PDR Emissions Program for the Carbon Fund will be a very different type of project. At the time that the project is agreed, the Carbon Fund and the Lao PDR Government will negotiate on the price that the Carbon Fund will pay Lao PDR for verified carbon emissions reductions. The schedule for payments would also be agreed, with perhaps an initial advance payment, and then subsequent payments at mid-term and after the program completion.