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This article lays the foundation for this special issue on social protection and climate change, introducing and evaluating the ways in which the individual articles contribute to our understanding of the subject.

In response to the pressing global challenges of climate change, initiatives under the auspices of 'reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation' (REDD) have been implemented in over 30 developing and least-developed countries since 2005. The initiatives cover nearly every significant and vulnerable forest ecosystem worldwide. In this study we review six representative initiatives, two each from Africa, Asia and Latin America. Strength, weakness, opportunity and threat analysis is done to evaluate each initiative's policy framework, design, implementation and results thus far. The main policy and project implementation factors that appear to lead to effective and successful REDD project outcomes include having clearly formulated project design; governance, land tenure rights and capacity; equity and transparency; indigenous peoples' rights and knowledge; local-international coordination; and enhancing local and institutional capacities. Based on these findings, we provide recommendations for future REDD policy action and project implementation to make it work for the poor and achieve its intended goals.

Abstractmillions of poor out of vicious cycle of poverty, but that performance has come at a price. The unprecedented growth that we witness today is also rapidly driving resource consumption to unsustainable levels. Local production and consumption-led growth is causing a considerable increase in external costs such as deforestation, and the knock-on effects such as increased emissions, including greenhouse gas (GHG); depletion of non-renewable resources; pollution of rivers; desertification; flooding and long term climate change. Currently, the region accounts for about 40% of GHG emissions, which is expected to exacerbate with the ongoing rapid industrialization and urbanization. By 2030, if the business-as-usual scenario persists, rise to almost 50%. Given the rapidly increasing resource use and associated environmental externalities, the governments in the region are becoming increasingly interested in pursuing the transition to a green economy as it helps achieve a better balance between the environment, the economy, and social welfare. Asia, when compared to the economies of other regions, has the highest rate of policy innovations that help transition to a green economy. However, for a region as big as Asia to make timely and sustainable transition to green economy, fiscal instruments that facilitate transition to a green economy will have to be adopted in a sufficiently large scale. In this paper, we look at the fiscal instruments that are currently adopted in Asia and their effectiveness in decoupling economic growth from emissions, pollution, and resource use, and advancing economic and social well-being. We will compare the design characteristics that influence the potential impact of these instruments and outline incentives and strategies needed to tackle the barriers for widespread adoption of effective fiscal instruments.

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