For much of the last decade, Latin America has eagerly embraced the promise of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The United Nations agreement, under which developed countries agreed to reduce their industrial greenhouse-gas emissions against 1990 levels, brought hundreds of millions of dollars in investment in Latin American clean energy projects and hopes of a revolution in energy technology. Renewable-energy, methane-mitigation and clean-transportation projects multiplied in the region as developed countries sought to offset their emissions by funding greenhouse-gas mitigation work in Latin America. They often did so through the so-called Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Plans for a complementary regimen known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (Redd) were drafted so rich countries could pay poorer, rainforest countries... [Log in to read more]
