The memorandum was signed at the two-day Governors' Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles which opened here on Tuesday.
"Tropical deforestation accounts for 20 percent of all human-caused carbon emission in the world, and the governors signing these MOUs with us manage more than 60 percent of the world's tropical forest land," said California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"With this agreement, we are focusing our collective efforts on the problem and requiring our states to jointly develop rules, incentives and tools to ensure reduced emission from deforestation and land degradation. We are also sending a strong message that this issue should be front and center during negotiations for the next global agreement on climate change," he added.
The agreement commits California, Illinois and Wisconsin to work with the governors of the following six states and provinces in Indonesia and Brazil to help slow and stop tropical deforestation, the cutting and burning of trees to convert land to grow crops and raise livestock, and land degradation through joint projects and incentive programs.
As the first state-to-state, sub-national agreement focused on reducing emissions from deforestation and land degradation (REDD) programs, it will help improve forest carbon accounting methodologies and will work to link state greenhouse gas mitigation programs with REDD efforts in Brazil and Indonesia.
Under the agreement, the signatories will develop a joint action plan by early 2009 to clearly outline progress. This progress will be discussed at the 2009 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
More than 800 people from over 50 states and provinces in the United States, Canada, China, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and Britain attended the Governors' Global Climate Summit.
