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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2010


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The World A11 U.N. nears agreement to curb destruction ofworld’s rain forests


to cut greenhouse gases BY JULIET EILPERIN


Nations would be compensated in effort


cancun, mexico — For years, policymakers and scientists alike have spoken of the need to save tropical forests as a way of curb- ing climate change. By week’s end, U.N. negotiators may finally set the rules of the road for doing it.


If all goes according to plan,


the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change will establish a global mechanism allowing de- veloping nations to receive finan- cial compensation for curbing deforestation, which accounts for roughly 15 percent of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emis- sions. Brazil, Indonesia and Papua


New Guinea are among the na- tions where forests are being cut to make way for expanded cattle grazing areas and the production of crops such as soybeans and palm oil. Now the formal text on Reduc-


ing Emissions from Deforesta- tion and Forest Degradation, or REDD+, as it is known, is almost ready. It will help define how to measure deforestation over time and what social and environmen- tal safeguards need to be in place. “It is ripe for harvest,” said


Brazilian climate change ambas- sador Sergio Serra, whose coun- try’s greenhouse gas emissions stem largely from the destruction of the Amazon’s forests. “It’s there.” Environmentalists, who have


lobbied hard for the measure as a way to save some of the world’s most biologically rich areas and to provide developing countries with a stake in conservation, say an agreement here will give both the public and private sectors a financial incentive to protect for- ests under pressure in Latin America, Asia and Africa. “We know that deforestation is


a global problem, and the only way to address that is with an international mechanism,” said Rebecca Chacko, climate policy director for the advocacy group Conservation International. “Now we finally have a moment


EDUARDO VERDUGO/ASSOCIATED PRESS


Activists from Via Campesina, an international movement of peasants, march during theU.N. climate change conference in Cancun,Mexico, against a proposal to limit deforestation of tropical areas.


where, if we’re successful this week, we can move forward and begin to invest for real.” There are already pilot proj-


ects scattered around the globe, funded by corporate interests hoping to bolster their public image or prepare for a carbon- constrained world, or by govern- ments and public institutions fo- cused on curbing deforestation. Norway has pledged more than $1 billion between now and 2012 as part of its long-term pacts with Brazil, Indonesia and Guyana, while theUnited States has prom- ised $1 billion as part of any broad international climate deal. And by the end of this month, a


Hong Kong-based company may become the first to preserve a stretch of tropical forest by sell- ing credits to major corporations, who could use them to compen- sate for their own greenhouse gas emissions if they face govern- ment regulation in the future. The development firm Infinite-


Earth is poised to issue interna- tionally approved forest carbon credits on a 250,000-acre stretch of rain forest and peat forests on the island of Borneo that had been slated to be cut down and


converted to palm oil planta- tions. The Rimba Raya Biodiver- sity Preserve project, which pro- vides habitat for the endangered Borneo orangutan, already has sold voluntary carbon credits to GazpromMarketing&Trading in Britain, Denmark’s Nordjysk El- handel and Japan’s NTT Data. Todd Lemons, InfiniteEarth’s


chief executive, said the fact that Gazprom agreed to pre-pay for several million tons in carbon offsets even before the Rimba Raya project was certified, “gave our investors and the market a very-much needed confidence there was a market for these credits.” Still, the sort of forest carbon


market that would grow out of any climate agreement would be modest at first and funded largely through the roughly $4.5 billion in pledged donations to Brazil and Indonesia and other coun- tries that show the most promise of delivering on verifiable cuts in deforestation. A year ago many experts had


envisioned that most of the mon- ey would come from companies bound by the European Union’s emissions trading system as well


as those in the United States, since Congress was considering adopting legislation that would have allowed American green- house gas emitters to buy offsets abroad. That legislation col- lapsed and, with it, the prospect of billions of dollars in private financing. “There will not be awaterfall of


money that will come from a final deal” in Cancun, said Andrew Deutz, the Nature Conservancy’s director of international govern- ment relations. But while a dozen countries


already have promised to help pay to preserve forests in the short term, most experts say the effort will fall short of what is needed to avert serious climate change. Several analyses, includ- ing ones by the Union of Con- cerned Scientists, the E.U. and Britain, estimate that the world would need to devote $25 billion a year to cut deforestation in half by 2020. “We’re getting out of the gate,


but there’s a lot more work that needs to be done before we can reduce deforestation at the rates that are needed,” said Kevin Con- rad, who is executive director of


What was behind Japan’s surprise stand? The show-stopping moment at the Cancun conference on climate change


was Japan’s stunning announcement last week that it opposed extending the Kyoto Protocol. It shook things up. Delegates at the beachside conference got upset.


There were words on all sides. The Kyoto Protocol, said the island nation where the protocol was created, was unfair. For those of you who don’t follow climate change, here’s why Japan’s


position was such a big deal: The Kyoto Protocol is pretty much the highest-profile achievement the


climate-change crowd can hang its hat on. It is a legally binding international accord to reduce greenhouse gases, Negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997, the protocol calls on 37


industrialized nations and the European Union to collectively reduce their emissions. The goal is to lower emissions from six greenhouse gases by 5.2 percent between 2008 and 2012, when the agreement is to expire. Developing countries care about Kyoto continuing beyond 2012 because it


provides greenhouse gas emitters in industrialized countries with a financial incentive to offset their greenhouse pollution by investing in emissions reduction in developing countries. “Compared to the emissions levels that would be expected by 2010


without the Protocol, this target represents a 29 percent cut,” says the Web site kyotoprotocol.com. The accord doesn’t make developing nations responsible for reducing


emissions because they haven’t produced much, but they are encouraged to preserve natural resources and invest in alternative energy to lower future emissions. It all looked great on paper, but not so much in the real world. The biggest


polluters, the United States and China — which account for about a quarter of the world’s people and nearly half of its toxic emissions — are not bound by the agreement. Without cooperation from China, which wouldn’t allow independent


observers to measure its emissions levels, and the United States, which couldn’t get a climate change bill through Congress, greenhouse gases couldn’t be reduced in any meaningful way. But Japan tolerated their absence. Until now. Japan said it would no longer lower its emissions to the detriment of its


economy while pollution engines in China and the United States were at full throttle. When the current phase of the protocol expires in 2012, Japan said, it’s over. Led by China, developing nations pushed Japan to continue the protocol to


its next phase until the United Nations could negotiate its replacement. “Japan will not inscribe its target under the Kyoto Protocol on any


conditions or under any circumstances,” said Jun Arima of Japan’s Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry. “Discussions focusing on a second commitment period will go nowhere.” But negotiations on its future are continuing.


— Darryl Fears


the Coalition for Rainforest Na- tions and Papua New Guinea’s climate change and environment ambassador. Even getting out of the gate


isn’t certain. Bolivia and its allies are seeking to block the forestry measure on the grounds that it applies capitalist principles to achieving a public good. On Tues- day, a group of activists marched through one of the buildings housing negotiations chanting, “No, no, no, no, no REDD. No!” And U.S. special climate envoy Todd Stern, who backs the provi-


sion, said theU.S.may not be able to support its full enactment if negotiators cannot agree onmore contentious issues, such as how to verify carbon cuts by major developing countries. If negotiators fail to close the


deal on deforestation, U.N. Foun- dation President Tim Wirth said, the world could risk losing what everyone agrees is “low-hanging fruit” in the fight against climate change. “Low-hanging fruit, if left on the tree, can rot,” Wirth said.


eilperinj@washpost.com


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