Australia wants forest CO2 trade in Copenhagen pact
Reuters is running a story “Australia wants forest CO2 trade in Copenhagen pact” about a proposal Australia has submitted to U.N. climate negotiators that outlines a scheme to use carbon credits to protect rain forests.
“We think a post-2012 agreement will need to include forests in some way,” [Climate Change Minister] Wong told Reuters in an interview in New York after addressing U.N. diplomats at the International Peace Institute, a think tank devoted to peace and security.
“Currently too many developing nations have an economic imperative to cut down forests. What we need to put in place is a mechanism that means instead of an economic imperative to cut down forests, we have an economic imperative to protect them.”
The United Nations has backed a scheme called REDD, or reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation, in which developing nations such as Brazil and Indonesia could potentially earn billions of dollars from selling carbon credits in return for saving their forests.
Carbon Planet has been quietly working on REDD projects for almost two years now and is a world leader on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. There are real issues with measuring, monitoring and equitable income distribution but we believe these problems have real solutions. The world’s emissions reduction plans rely on the acceptance of REDD. To allow the world’s forests to keep burning is simply not an option. And that means creating proper economic incentives for people, many of whom are amongst the world’s poorest, to sustain their forests rather than allowing them to be destroyed. — DS
[UPDATE]. I found Penny Wong’s speech and the actual text of the proposal to the UN.