Finance for REDD?

'Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation' (REDD) is a policy mechanism that targets the around 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions that emanate from deforestation and forest degradation. The mechanism involves payments from developed countries to developing countries. Required annual payments are estimated to amount to tens of billions USD, which equals roughly 0.05% of OECD countries’ 2010 GDP. This thesis explored whether public finance for REDD can be expected when there are either no binding emission targets or when REDD is not allowed to meet these targets. For this purpose the relationship of various factors with disbursements for the purpose of climate change mitigation were analysed. Emission targets were found to play an important, but not the only, role. This indicates that without targets total public funds for international climate change mitigation will probably reduce, but that of the funds available part is likely to benefit REDD measures.