Climate Mitigation Choices: Reducing Deforestation in the Global South Versus Reducing Fossil Fuel Production at Home

This chapter demonstrates how choices of climate mitigation may be examined in critical and constructive political ecology contributions. Based on ideas of ‘international cost-effectiveness’, some governments in the Global North aim to outsource climate mitigation to countries in the Global South. Typically, this happens through forest-based conservation under the label REDD. The chapter presents a case study of a Norwegian REDD project in Tanzania, and argues that in-depth case studies provide crucial knowledge for decision-making on issues such as REDD, although this is not prioritized by governments providing the funding for REDD. In addition, leading discourses on REDD, carbon trade, and climate mitigation are discussed, and the chapter also shows how Norway’s climate policy has become significantly influenced by the fossil fuel lobby.