The Prince of Wales has called for "an emergency package to halt deforestation" to be developed in time for the international climate summit in Copenhagen later this year.

Charles was addressing staff at a visit to the Met Office headquarters in Exeter, Devon. Highlighting his concerns about deforestation, particularly in the Amazon, the Prince called for action ahead of the United Nations (UN) Climate Conference to be held in Denmark in December.

He said: "When you think about it, the rainforests have a huge impact on global CO2 emissions. A fifth of CO2 pollution is from deforestation - that's what deforestation produces.

"So one of the things I have been trying to do is put together a partnership of the public, private and NGO (non-governmental organisation) sectors to see if there's a way in which we can provide a solution, and we have come up with various proposals.

"But if by the time we reach Copenhagen in December there's a means by which we can introduce an emergency package to halt deforestation - or bring it under control - not only would it actually buy us time in the battle against climate change because of the services provided by those rainforests, but also it would help very substantially to make a difference to the lives of many of the poorest people on this Earth."

The Prince urged for "a precautionary approach" to combat climate change, based on common sense and not just scientific solutions.

He said: "It's one of the things I have been trying to say for many years - that the precautionary approach, the precautionary principle, is not a bad one to follow. At the moment it seems to me we have been busily testing the world to destruction, carrying out a gigantic experiment with the world and with our climate."

He added: "But to fix it just through technological fixery, geoengineering or whatever, it simply will not be enough and it won't be able to be put in quickly enough."

As part of the Prince's visit he spent 50 minutes in discussion with world leading climate scientists from the Met Office Hadley Centre, discussing geo-engineering and the fate of the Amazon rainforest.

Copyright © 2009 The Press Association. All rights reserved.

Source: Press Association

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - An Australian firm hoping to broker A$1.6 billion in carbon credit sales from saving tropical forests highlights the promise and peril of a U.N.-backed scheme that rewards projects for curbing deforestation.

Carbon Planet, in presentations to investors, says it has contracted 100 million carbon offsets over five years from projects in Papua New Guinea and 60 million over five years from Indonesia at an average of A$10 ($8.5) each offset, or credit.

That equates to 160 million metric tons of carbon dioxide saved from being emitted by keeping the forests standing.

None of the 25 projects in PNG and 8 in Indonesia have yielded credits although the company, a carbon services provider, hopes credits will start to flow soon and says it has buyers.

But brokers and analysts say there is no appetite currently for that volume of "avoided deforestation" credits on the global voluntary carbon market, which is driven by demand from corporates wanting to offset their carbon emissions.

Demand worth potentially billions of dollars annually would only come from future national emissions trading schemes such as in the United States and Australia and an eventual global scheme backed by the United Nations, called reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD).

Analysts say giving large credit flow forecasts from REDD projects before they are audited or validated is fraught with risk if projects do not yield as many credits as forecast.

In addition, REDD's final design has not been decided by the U.N., it is unclear how the scheme will be included in national schemes or if early REDD projects will be included in the U.N. framework.

"People are contracting REDD as though it's on the verge of becoming a compliance market," said Martijn Wilder, head of Baker & McKenzie's global climate change and emissions trading practice, referring to markets that would allow REDD credits to meet mandatory emissions curbs in rich nations.

The United Nations hopes REDD will be included in a broader climate pact the world body wants to be agreed in December during a major meeting in Copenhagen. The idea is for a global REDD credit market to formally begin in 2013.

"We are using much more conservative figures when we are talking to our investors," said Darius Sarshar from New Forests, which is developing a large REDD project in Papua, Indonesia.

In Indonesia, there are an estimated 20 projects at various stages of development, the World Bank says.

"However, such engagement remains speculative, extremely expensive and has numerous challenges," said Wilder.

COMPLEXITY

This is particularly the case given the early stage of development of REDD and the complexity and time needed to develop REDD projects in developing countries.

"In terms of the forecast market demand of voluntary credits, it is by no way even up to the volumes that I've seen promoted as imminent from REDD projects," said Chris Halliwell, a senior emissions broker for TFS Green in Melbourne, Australia.

"There seems to be a mark-to-market valuation but not really supply and demand analysis."

REDD holds the promise of unlocking billions of dollars in annual revenue to developing nations from carbon offset sales to wealthy countries.

The scheme is designed to curb deforestation and restore the world's tropical forests so they can soak up growing amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.

But REDD projects must provide funds for local communities, prove they are designed to address local causes of deforestation, ensure they are long-term and be able to accurately calculate how much carbon the forest will lock away over several decades.

Such complex calculations take time. Proving who actually owns the carbon stock in a given area is also crucial.

Carbon Planet's projections seem daring if only because the entire value of the world's voluntary carbon market was US$705 million in 2008, up from US$335 million in 2007, according to "State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2009" by Ecosystem Marketplace and analysts New Carbon Finance.

Of this, global sales of "avoided deforestation" credits were just one percent of turnover.

Carbon Planet Founder Dave Sag told Reuters the A$600 million in revenues over five years from Indonesia was "based on a very conservative estimated yield of 12 million tonnes per annum."

"I understand that people have concerns about our projections. Anyone would given the scale of them. But the numbers to us do not seem unrealistic."

TOUGH STANDARDS

Sag said the projects would meet tough yardsticks -- such as the respected Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) and Climate, Community and Biodiversity Project Design Standards -- and the firm was looking more to future compliance markets.

"That's why we are busting a gut to make sure that these projects are produced properly."

But large markets that will accept large volumes of REDD credits are several years away. And many developing nations have yet to develop rules governing REDD, adding to uncertainty.

Another REDD project developer in Indonesia said it was crucial to prove to investors that protecting an area of forest actually curbs deforestation and therefore emissions.

"You are basically doing projects and drafting legal agreements in the absence of any rules," said Wilder.

"From our point of view, doing a REDD project is similar to other long-term infrastructure projects in the sense that the legal foundations have to be beyond reproach," he added.

Sag says REDD credits will soon start to flow from its projects, starting later this year with 10 million VCS-standard credits from Kamula Doso rainforest in Papua New Guinea.

The company has signed a deal with a firm called Nupan, which represents the 52 land-owner groups in the 800,000 ha (2 million acres) reserve who are the legal owners of the "carbon stock."

He denies Carbon Planet is playing fast and loose with its projections, saying investors want to know the numbers.

"I am the confident the credits will start walking out the door pretty soon. We have buyers lined up."

(By David Fogarty; Additional reporting by Sunanda Creagh in Jakarta; Editing by Michael Urquhart)

Source: Reuters

Some rights for the image is reserved under Creative Commons license

Deforestation, or the removal of forests, is a major problem that has devastating effects all over the world. Europeans began clearing forests more than 500 years ago. The invention of modern machinery made the process even easier. By the end of the 19th century, most of the deciduous forest of North America, Australia and New Zealand had been cleared. In the 21st century, tropical forests are being cut and burned at alarming rates in South America and Southeast Asia. Asia as a whole has already lost about 90 percent of its forests.

With forest resources--"the lungs of the Earth"-- under attack in many regions, some have raised concerns about the planet's oxygen supply.

Forests are very important to the world´s climate because they help in rain formation and absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. As the forests disappear, the weather will change, and some places will dry up.

There are many benefits that we get from our forests. Some of these include cleaner drinking water, a home for plants and animals, economic growth, clean air, recreational opportunities. Another most important benefit we get from trees is called oxygen. If there were no trees to give us oxygen to breath, we would not be able to live. Trees are known as the oxygen supplier to our planet.

As vast forests such as the Amazon are denuded of their beauty and natural resources, our atmosphere is also seriously altered. The forests are stripped faster than they can be replanted, and when severely depleted, photosynthesis is greatly reduced. No photosynthesis, no oxygen. No oxygen, no life. But deforestation continues at a break neck speed in many areas of the world.

Earlier in Jharkhand forest played major role in balancing the temperature difference. But now forest cover is rapidly depleting. Even one of the biggest forest of Asia popularly known as Saranda Forest is also decreasing many fold due to rampant iron ore mining in Jharkhand State. Today the remaining forest areas are unevenly distributed. Bokaro has only 4.4% of area under forest. Similarly Sahebganj has only 2.31%, Dhanbad 12.72%, Deoghar 9.5% and Ranchi only 23.37% of area under vegetation.

At the Survey and Settlement (1902-1910) the area under forests in the Ranchi districts approximated to about 2,281 square miles, i.e. about 32 percent of the total land area of the district. At the Revisional Survey and Settlement (1927-1935) this area shrank to about 1,956 square mils, i.e. 27 percent of the total land area. Thus during a period of 25 years, 325 square miles of forests had disappeared. When the forests were notified under the Bihar Private Forests Act,1946 and demarcation was done only about 1,065 square miles were found under forests in this district. Adding 213 square miles of reserve forests to this, the total area under forest in this district came to 1,278 square miles. Thus in course of a decade over 600 square miles of forests disappeared. Now it has reached up to 23 percent and gradually decreasing further.

Our planet´s future is that by cutting back tropical forests we put our supply of oxygen gas at risk.
The unusually high concentration of oxygen gas on Earth is the result of the oxygen cycle. The biogeochemical cycle describes the movement of oxygen within and between its three main reservoirs on Earth: the atmosphere, the biosphere, and the lithosphere. The main driving factor of the oxygen cycle is photosynthesis, which is responsible for modern Earth´s atmosphere. Photosynthesis releases oxygen into the atmosphere, while respiration and decay remove it from the atmosphere.

Regarding percentage of oxygen present in the atmosphere in the geological past, it was revealed that air bubbles trapped in fossilized amber had been analyzed and found to contain oxygen levels of 38%. Yet today it is well known that the average content of the oxygen in air is only 19% to 21%. If we believe on the report of oxygen level in the fossilized amber, it appears that since the early history of our earth there has been a stunning decrease of 50% in the average oxygen content of the air we breathe. According to other report, analysis of the air in various parts of the world today reveals the frightening fact that the oxygen content continues to decline. In fact in some of the larger and therefore more polluted cities the oxygen levels have been measured at a disturbing level of 12 to 15%. Scientists claim that anything under 7% oxygen content in the air is too low to support human life, even for short periods.

Historical trends, as explained in Atmospheric Oxygen, Giant Paleozoic Insects and the Evolution of Aerial Locomotor Performance by R. Dudley, JExB, show a high of about 35% just before the beginning of the Permian, with a rapid decline to a low of about 13-14% near the beginning of the Triassic, then a small spike at about 17% in mid Triassic, another drop to about 14-15% early in the Jurassic, a sudden climb to about 21% by mid-Jurassic, then a gentle climb to about 26% early in the Tertiary, and a rather constant, steady decline to the present "20.9%."

Our planet´s future is under threat as cutting back tropical forests we put our supply of oxygen gas at risk.

There is difference in opinion about oxygen depletion. Some scientists believe that our atmosphere is endowed with such an enormous reserve of this gas that even if we were to burn all our fossil reserves, all our trees, and all the organic matter stored in soils, we would use up only a few percent of the available oxygen. No matter how foolishly we treat our environment heritage, we simply don´t have the capacity to put more than a small dent in our oxygen supply.

But we can´t take any risk. If forest or plants provide oxygen, cutting or burning trees is definitely going to affect the oxygen balance of our atmosphere. (By Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi)

Sources:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/quarterly/co2_article/co2.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen

http://www.sdpo.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=61

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-2.1/broecker.htm

Source News: thepeoplesvoice.org

Tags: deforestation , forest

BERLIN (Reuters) - Governments can help combat climate change by investing more in natural areas, including forests and mangroves, a European study said on Wednesday.

The paper pointed out that nations have natural assets worth trillions of dollars which could help fight global warming and save investment in industrial schemes for carbon capture.

"Natural systems represent one of the biggest untapped allies against the greatest challenge of this generation," said The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study, part of a global project, to be published next year.

Launched by Germany and the European Commission, the report is examining the economics of biodiversity loss.

An investment of $45 billion in protected areas could save nature-based services worth $4.5-$5.2 trillion a year, more than the value of the car, steel and information technology sectors, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel told reporters.

Scientists say preserving nature is crucial in fighting climate change but warn extinctions are speeding up due to human activity. Extinction rates are at 1,000 times their natural pace and three species vanish every hour, research shows.

The study highlighted the role of forests in naturally mitigating CO2 emissions as they absorb an estimated 15 percent of global greenhouse emissions every year.

Agreeing on funding to save forests must be a priority for governments at December's global talks in Copenhagen to try to agree on a successor to the Kyoto protocol on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, said the authors of the report.

"To target the removal of carbon dioxide, the best mechanism we have is in nature. In tropical forests we have both an opportunity and a solution to the significant challenges we face," study leader Pavan Sukhdev told reporters.

The report highlighted the dangers facing coral reefs which have risen due to a build up of greenhouse gases. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations are already irreversibly damaging coral reefs and their extinction would jeopardize the livelihoods of millions of people, said the study.

Coral reefs, which protect coastlines from the effects of global warming and are essential for some kinds of fish, are worth up to $170 billion a year, said the study.

"An estimated half a billion people depend on them for livelihoods and more than a quarter of marine fish species are dependent on coral reefs," said Sukhdev.

Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the U.N. Environment Programme said billions of dollars of government investment in power station carbon capture schemes may not be the full answer.

"Perhaps it is time to subject this to a full cost benefit analysis to see whether the technological option matches nature's ability to capture and store carbon," he said. (By Madeline Chambers; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Source: Reuters

Tags: climate change , forest , wetlands