Tuesday December 11, 2007
By DAVID FOGARTY
PROTECTING tropical rainforests, which soak up vast amounts of greenhouse gases, is proving a real headache at the climate talks in Bali, where delegates are trying to sort out a pay-and-preserve scheme.
Scientists say deforestation in the tropics is responsible for about 20% of all man-made carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming. Curbing the clearing and burning of remaining tropical forests is widely regarded as a crucial part of any new climate pact.
Under a scheme called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD), developing nations could earn billions of dollars through carbon trading by simply leaving forests such as in the Amazon and Congo basins.
The United Nations hopes the conference will agree to include a REDD scheme in negotiations to work out a broader climate pact for the future. Kyoto Protocol now does not include schemes that reward developing nations to preserve tropical rainforests.
The problem, though, is finding a scheme that fits all developing nations.
Nations also needed to sort out the type of compensation scheme.
To help nations prepare, the Bali meeting is expected to launch a series of pilot projects.
At its simplest, the idea is to issue carbon credits to qualifying developing nations and rich nations buy these credits to offset their emissions at home.
It’s a system that commoditises forests and rewards poor nations for keeping forests that might otherwise be cleared for their hardwood or to create vast plantations for biofuels or timber to feed ever-growing global demand for pulp and paper.
A Brazilian delegate, however, said her government did not believe in market- based mechanisms to limit deforestation unless rich nations agreed to make major emissions cuts at home.
Delegates are still sorting out how to monitor the world’s remaining rainforests, how to ensure a halt in logging in one area or country doesn’t shift the problem elsewhere, how to work out the amount of carbon that can be saved from a particular forest and the historical rate of deforestation. But by far the biggest issue is compliance -- how to ensure that the forests are really protected and will remain intact in the long run.
Pep Canadell, executive officer of the Global Carbon Project, said total emissions from deforestation over the past seven years from South-East Asia had risen while those from the Amazon basin, described at the lungs of the earth, had fallen.
Indonesia, which is losing vast areas of forest every year, is keen to earn money from saving what’s left and some provinces have already taken a headstart by signing agreements with international carbon investment companies.
The government also plans to launch studies measuring emission cuts from deforestation and distributing the benefits from a possible financing scheme to forest-dependent communities. – Reuters
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