A plan to reduce tropical deforestation by paying developing countries to protect forests was postponed Saturday after world leaders failed to produce a binding climate agreement in Copenhagen.

The proposed mechanism, REDD+, had been seen as one of the only bright spots during the climate negotiations, but it appears to be on hold until there are more advances on a broader deal.

Four days prior to the end of the climate talks the U.S., Britain, Australia, Japan, France and Norway said they would commit to USD $3.5 billion towards slowing, halting and eventually reversing deforestation in developing countries. The amount would cover 2010 to 2012 and was dependent on a deal being reached. It is unclear where the REDD+ negotiations left off.

The aim of REDD+ is to reduce tropical deforestation by 25 percent by 2015. Most estimates price this at about $25 billion, which is expected to be financed by international public finance, though developed countries and developing forest nations will have to agree on a balance between international public financing and self-financing.

Some developing forest nations have relatively high levels of income per capita and are able to pay for at least some of their own REDD efforts. Countries like Brazil and Costa Rica have already financed a great deal of work to reduce domestic deforestation. Brazil alone is aiming to reduce deforestation by 80 percent.

In terms of global mitigation, the 25 percent reduction from forestry is expected to deliver between 1.5GT and 2GT per annum by 2015, including reduced emissions from peat-land. This would be about 5.5GT and 7GT cumulatively 2010-2015.

Finance is needed for three things:

• Capacity building;
• Upfront investment in activities that support job and livelihoods and at the same time reduce the pressure on forests; and
• Payments for emissions reductions achieved.

Tropical deforestation is one of the world’s larger sources of greenhouse gas emissions.