Are nations rewarded for enforcing existing laws?
The system does not reward the prior effective legal protection of terrestrial carbon because the decisions to provide that legal protection were made in the absence of a carbon market. Therefore, obtaining funding from a carbon market could not have been a consideration in weighing the economic, social, and environmental factors of making the decision. Providing financial incentives from a carbon market to maintain such terrestrial carbon would fail the additionality test. However, areas that are “legally” but not effectively protected (because already subject to or threatened by illegal encroachment) would be included when setting the National Terrestrial Carbon Budget. An international fund could also help nations seeking to address the failure of enforcement through other channels.
