UN climate conference skips forest fires

Stevie Emilia, The Jakarta Post, New Delhi

As the ongoing eighth United Nations conference on climate change moved slowly to its sixth day on Monday, representatives from local communities in developing countries found that some key issues on global warming -- like emissions coming from forest fires -- are not being covered by the meeting.

The latest round of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that set the final details of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on global warming -- which is expected to come into effect in March next year -- focuses more on developed countries' commitment to make specific cuts in their output of carbon-based emissions from their 1990 levels by a 2008 to 2012 deadline.

Discussions on Monday still centered on a clean development mechanism (CDM) under which industrialized countries are allowed to meet part of their carbon emissions reduction commitments by carrying out reforestation and clean energy projects in developing countries.

"Tropical deforestation is a significant part of climate change and should be addressed more specifically by the international community," said coordinator of the Amazon Institute of Environmental Research Paulo Moutinho on Monday.

Citing an example, he said the widespread burning of Brazil's Amazon forests that emitted great amounts of carbon was excluded from the conference's agenda.

Every year, he said, almost 200 million tonnes of carbon -- or equal to 2 percent to 3 percent of global emissions -- were emitted into the air due to forest fires, adding that the problem affected the entire world.

Forests contain vast quantities of carbon. Some forests act as "sinks" by absorbing carbon from the air while forests whose carbon flows are in balance act as "reservoir". Deforestation and changes in land use make the world's forests a net source of carbon dioxide.

According to the United Nations report, deforestation is the second largest source of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.

The report says that when forests are cleared for agriculture or development, most of the dioxide in the burned or decomposing trees escapes to the atmosphere. However, when new forests are planted the growing trees absorb carbon dioxide, removing it from the atmosphere.

Recent net deforestation has occurred mainly in the tropics. There is a great deal of scientific uncertainty about emissions from deforestation and other land-use changes, but it is estimated that from 800 million to 2.4 billion tonnes of carbon are released globally every year.

The recent climate disasters -- from drought in India to floods in Europe -- according to the UN, are strong reminders of the consequence of global warming. The gradual warming of the planet resulting in, among other things, higher sea levels, threatening island nations.