Citola Blog
Copenhagen Accord Supports Forestry
The Copenhagen climate change conference (COP15) ended last week with a ‘Copenhagen Accord’ that outlines “that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time” and that global temperatures should not be allowed to increase by 2 degrees Celsius.
"This was quite a significant achievement which we were able to make in Copenhagen… [and] fulfills in large part the benchmarks for success that I had laid down". - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The Accord does not carry the weight of a Protocol, but will rather act as a stepping stone to COP16 next year in Mexico City, Mexico.
Under the accord, the greenhouse gas reduction commitments proposed by industrialised nations and the major emerging economies would be monitored and verified. Industrialised countries would be bound to meet their emission reduction targets, while developing nations would be required to audit and report their domestic actions to combat climate change every two years.
In addition, the accord would establish a fund of ~US$30 billion (2010 - 2012) to help developing nations prepare for a changing and warmer climate, integrate new sustainable technologies and to protect and replant their forests. Developed nations will aim to mobilize US$100 billion annually by 2020 to help developing countries combat climate change.
The support of forestry is widely seen as the major positive development of the Accord where Point 6 states:
“We recognize the crucial role of reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation and the need to enhance removals of greenhouse gas emission by forests and agree on the need to provide positive incentives to such actions through the immediate establishment of a mechanism including REDD-plus, to enable the mobilization of financial resources from developed countries.”
Australian Climate Change minister Penny Wong has vowed to continue with the government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) bill in February, 2010 where the government is facing calls to raise its carbon emissions reduction target by five times to 25%.
The Australian CPRS actively support forestry as the only form of permit generation allowed in the scheme other than the ‘free’ government permit allocation process.
Post new comment