About the Poznan Climate Change Conference

In December, world leaders meet in Poland to discuss the most important challenge ever faced by humanity - tackling climate change. This will be their first major step since the climate forum in Bali last year.

In Poznan, The Wilderness Society delegation will be urging world leaders to take strong action to reduce logging and land clearing - as part of the global plan to tackle climate change.

The Poznan climate negotiations will begin the process of setting climate change emissions targets for all countries, including for the first time the United States and Australia - and what measures can be used to meet those targets, starting from 2013.
 
For 12 months from Poznan to Copenhagen in December 2009, the negotiations to rescue life on earth from dangerous climate change will intensify around the world.
 
The Wilderness Society has greatly strengthened its engagement with the UN climate processes this year and thanks to strong support from our members we are able to send a very strong delegation to Poznan - to tell the story of Green Carbon and lobby for practical policies and approaches to protecting and restoring the carbon stored in the world’s forests.

• For a detailed outline of our policy position download The Wilderness Society submission (PDF - 476 KB) to the Rudd Governments Green Paper on the Emissions Trading Scheme.
  
  

Protecting forests is a vital part of the solution to climate change

Deforestation (land clearing) and forest degradation (logging) together comprise one of the world’s leading sources of greenhouse gas emissions. The recently released ANU Green Carbon Report tells a critical story about the need to protect the world’s natural forests to reduce climate change.
 
The simplest and cheapest way to achieve deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions is to protect Earth’s natural forests. This is equally true for Australia where we now know, thanks to groundbreaking new research from ANU,  that the temperate native forests of south-eastern Australia are among the most carbon dense forests on earth.

Given the current trajectory of emissions, scientists are now predicting a temperature increase of up to 6.1˚C and a sea-level rise of 1 to 3.7 metres by 2100.

With 18% of annual global emissions caused by deforestation, we can no longer ignore the role of forests and native vegetation in the climate solution.

Protecting forests from land clearing and logging must be part of Australia’s and the world’s response to climate change, along with strong action on reducing emissions from other sectors such as electricity generation, transport and agriculture.

In Poznan, The Wilderness Society delegation will be urging world leaders, and especially Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, to take strong action to reduce logging and land clearing of temperate, tropical and boreal native forests and woodlands as part of the global plan to tackle climate change.

• Learn more about the science behind Green carbon >>

Your front row seat to these crucial climate negotiations

In December we are posting regular updates from inside the Poznan climate meeting.

• The latest events in real-time - Twitter feed >>
  
• Regular updates of the days events >>
• Visit the 'official' Poznan 2008 website >>