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Greenpeace volunteers take on climate change with spades and shovels
Posted by tracy on 9 April 2008.
Our office in New Zealand has turned their hands to extreme gardening. The island nation is well known for its burgeoning agricultural industry and now the government is converting 25,000 hectares of forest into large-scale intensive dairy farms.
They are currently clearing in Tahorakuri forest on the central north island and the Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry estimates that 445,000 hectares of forest are at risk of being destroyed and converted primarily for dairy farms. So our office there got their spades out.
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Greenpeace launches landmark proposal for reducing tropical deforestation at Bali climate talks
Greenpeace today launched a landmark proposal for reducing, and ultimately stopping, tropical deforestation.
The initiative was launched at a side event of the Bali Climate Conference, featuring the Governors of Papua and Papua Barat, the provinces with the largest intact tropical forests in Indonesia.
Greenpeace believes that finding solutions to ending deforestation must be a key objective of the conference for the following reasons:
Tropical deforestation accounts for approximately a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than those produced by the world's entire transport sector.
Indonesia and Brazil are the third and fourth largest emitters in the world largely due to deforestation. In order to help prevent dangerous climate change, Greenpeace believes that deforestation should be stopped globally within a decade.
The peat swamp forests of Indonesia alone are responsible for 4 per cent of the world's annual greenhouse gas emissions. Mitigating these emissions represents one of the quickest and easiest ways of tackling climate change.
Since 1997 about 13 million hectares of forest (mostly tropical) have been destroyed per year - an area the size of Greece lost every year.
"We want the issue of deforestation to be a central part of the negotiations here in Bali. The world has the resources to stop this problem - what's needed now is the political will. Governors from Papua and Brazil's Amazonas State have shown that they have the desire to do this, the world's governments in Bali must now follow. No money, no forests, no future," said Greenpeace Brazil's Amazon campaign coordinator, Paulo Adario.
The Greenpeace proposal has the potential to raise funding in the range of several billion US$ per year to finance urgent action to cut emissions from deforestation. The proposal would allow industrialised countries like Britain to meet a percentage of their emissions reduction targets through the purchase of "units" from the scheme. Proceeds from the sale of these units would be used to transfer resources between rich countries and poor ones to prevent deforestation.
In Bali, earlier this year, the Governors of the Papua provinces recognised the need to reduce deforestation and called for the "support of the international community through carbon financing mechanisms and transfer of technology to protect our forests and provide income to local communities". (1)
Bill Hare, Greenpeace political advisor on climate change and co-author of the initiative, said: "Our proposal could lead to real deforestation reductions without shifting deforestation from one place to another. It will also make sure that local communities can share the benefits."
Tropical Deforestation and the Kyoto Protocol: www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/...
For a copy of the proposal contact Greenpeace UK Press Office +44 (0) 207 865 8255 or view online.
Christoph Thies, Greenpeace International Forest campaigner +62 (0) 8133 7949712
Martin Baker, Greenpeace International Communications +62 (0) 81337949714
Notes:
(1) Declaration of the Governors of Aceh, Papua and Papua Barat on Climate Change, April 2007
Why the European Commission should reject the UK's plan for Phase 2 of European Emissions Trading Scheme
Publication date: 29 June 2006
Summary
The European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is intended to allow the EU member states reduce their CO2 emissions in the most cost effective way and in doing so fulfil their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. The scheme covers nearly half of Europe's CO2 emissions, and is seen as a key plank of both European and member states policy to tackle climate change. Launching the 2006 UK Climate Change Programme, Tony Blair suggested that "the scheme remains the most important mechanism for stimulating international investment in low-carbon technology."
Emissions trading scheme - Greenpeace reaction
smoke stacks
Commenting on the government's announcement that it will allow substantially more CO2 to be emitted by Britain under the Emissions Trading Scheme, Greenpeace Executive Director Stephen Tindale said:
"Only this month Tony Blair was telling us all how shocked he'd been by the latest evidence on climate change. Well we're shocked by this latest evidence that he lacks the will to do much about it. Today's announcement should have been based on sound science, not interdepartmental horse-trading. Scientists tell us we need deep cuts in emissions, starting now, but with this decision Blair has said to industry, 'you don't need to make any cuts, you can emit as much over the next three years as you did over the last three years'."
The revision announced today increases by 19.8 million tonnes the amount of co2 the UK will be permitted to emit for the three year period of the scheme. That represents 9% of the amount of greenhouse gases the country committed to cutting under the Kyoto protocol.
Stephen Tindale continued:
"Blair seems to have been hood-winked by the totally discredited argument that cutting emissions is bad for competitiveness. Cutting out the wasteful use of energy will improve our economy, not damage it. This is just another example of how vested interests with loud voices and deep pockets can drive policy in the wrong direction."
For more contact Greenpeace on 0207 865 8255
Environmental effectiveness and loopholes
Under threat - polar bear
In Kyoto in 1997 at the third Conference of the Parties (COP 3), the Kyoto Protocol was adopted. Thirty-eight industrialised countries agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by varying amounts with an overall reduction of 5.2% below 1990 levels by the year 2010. It also provided a series of 'flexible mechanisms' to help them achieve this.
As negotiations have proceeded it has become clear that these 'mechanisms' have become potential loopholes that, if adopted, would allow industrialised countries to do very little or nothing in the way of real emissions reduction and still appear to meet their targets.