To make the impact at the scale needed, tropical forest protection needs to happen at the national level, working with governments and policymakers, who with the right funding, can commit to robust, national- or state-level forest protection programs.
The best way to achieve this is by using international markets for carbon credits and capitalizing on the growing demand from the private sector for high-quality, high-impact offsets as they race toward net-zero emissions goals. Under such a system, governments receive payments for the emission reductions they achieve through preventing forest loss or degradation.
This is where the Biden administration can lead. There are three specific actions that the president-elect and his team can focus on during the first year of the new administration in the lead up to the climate summit in the United Kingdom.
