US-Brazil Memorandum of Understanding on climate change

Yesterday's post described a new development in Australian-Indonesian cooperation on REDD, namely the launching of the Kalimantan Forest Carbon Partnership. It also remarked on an apparent trend whereby donor countries appeared to be focusing their REDD-related attentions on one or two partners -- Indonesia in the case of Australia and Guyana in the case of Norway -- while speculating as to if and when the US would follow suit.

We didn't have to wait for long. Yesterday, in Brasilia, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on "Cooperation regarding Climate Change."  Section II of the MoU reads as follows:

Under this MOU, the Participants decide to cooperate in areas related to capacity-building, research, development, deployment and dissemination of technologies to address climate change and its adverse effects. Our two countries are already engaged in substantial collaborative work in such areas as energy efficiency, renewable energy, including bioenergy and biofuels, and carbon capture and storage, under both the 2003 MOU for the Establishment of a Mechanism for Consultations on Energy Cooperation, between the U.S. Department of Energy and Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy, and the 2007 MOU to Advance Cooperation on Biofuels between the U.S. Department of State and Brazil’s Ministry of External Relations. That collaborative work would continue, and new areas of cooperation would be added, including, but not limited to, the following areas: reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+); and low-carbon development. (emphasis supplied).

The MoU, which is valid for 10 years, thus folds in existing areas of cooperation, while adding two new areas, notably including REDD.  Indeed, the desire to cooperate on REDD appears to be the driving force behind the MoU as a whole. While no additional specifics were mentioned related to REDD, such details are likely to emerge in coming weeks and months, as a detailed cooperative programme emerges. And while no financial details have been provided, look for this programme to aim to deliver a substantial portion of the US $1 billion REDD commitment made at Copenhagen.