Backwards step for
forest deal
A
proposal aimed at saving the world's tropical forests suffered
a setback Sunday, when negotiators at the UN climate talks
ditched plans for faster action on the problem because of
concerns that rich countries aren't willing to finance it.
14/12/2009
- Destruction of forests — burning or cutting trees
to clear land for plantations or cattle ranches —
is thought to account for about 20 percent of global emissions.
That's as much carbon dioxide as all the world's cars, trucks,
trains, planes and ships combined.
So
a deal on deforestation is considered a key component of
a larger pact on climate change being negotiated in Copenhagen.
On
Sunday, language calling for reducing deforestation 50 percent
by 2020 was struck from the text being considered. And the
document only mentions financing without saying how much
would go to the more than 40 developing nations in Latin
America, Asia and Africa.
The
Europeans want to put in a shorter-term goal, "and
the rain forest nations are saying that we are happy to
have a goal as long as it's balanced by appropriate funding
... which is missing from the text," said Federica
Bietta, the deputy director of the Coalition for Rain Forest
Nations. The group represents most of the countries that
could take part in a forest scheme.
Antonio
Gabriel La Vina, the lead negotiator in the forest talks
and author of the latest draft, downplayed the changes and
said it was a compromise between those who wanted hard targets
and those who didn't.
Environmentalists
earlier this month hailed the forest talks as one area where
negotiations were progressing and some suggested they could
serve as a catalyst to inking a larger climate deal here
in Copenhagen.
But
they have fallen victim to the same bickering between rich
and poor nations which has slowed progress on the wider
agreement. There are still no firm figures on financing
or cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the larger agreement.
Do UNFCCC
