Initiatives: Carbon Emissions

 

The Rainforest Coalition has organized a 'Party Grouping' under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to address the role of carbon emissions from deforestation related to global climate stability.

Clearly, global climate regimes which fail to address significant sources of global carbon emissions will never secure lasting climate stability. 

Developing nations can have a dramatic impact on international climate stability given that global deforestation and forest degradation have a significant affect upon the accumulation of atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs). 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calculated that during the 1990’s, the contribution of land-use changes to global warming was approximately 1.6 GtC   (1 GtC = 10ˆ9 tonnes carbon), which corresponds to approximately 20%-25% of total global GHG emissions.

Specifically, the Kyoto Protocol presently excludes the utilization of the carbon sequestration and carbon emissions resulting from deforestation in support of sustainable rainforest management in the tropics. Therefore, international regulations must be reviewed related to carbon emissions trading to include assets based on forest carbon sequestration and/or emissions caused by deforestation. 

Present emissions frameworks, such as the Kyoto Protocol, must be restructured – for example, the CDM is not proving effective at equitable distribution.  According to a recent World Bank assessment, the Pacific Islands, Africa, and South America are being largely excluded from benefit. 

The Rainforest Coalition seeks to incorporate certified emissions offsets related to deforestation (in addition to afforestation and reforestation) within global carbon emissions markets by revising the Marrakech Accords, amending the Kyoto Protocol, or developing a linked ‘optional protocol’ under the UNFCCC.

Defaulting to the questionable rationale of the Kyoto Protocol, many of the fledgling global carbon emissions markets, such at the EU-ETS, have similarly excluded old-growth carbon sequestration and deforestation from trading mechanisms.  The challenge now is to collaborate with each exchange to revise  standards and effect regulation.

Historically, Developing Nations have not effectively articulated the inequity of the present carbon emissions frameworks.  The Rainforest Coalition will vigorously pursue this critical agenda through the UNFCCC and in association with like-minded nations from both industrialized and developing nations.