UN climate conference skips forest fires
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.