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.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong gave her first speech to a packed conference today, on behalf of the "Umbrella Group", a loose caucus of countries also including Canada, Japan, Russia, The United States, New Zealand, Ukraine and Iceland.

Penny Wong spoke briefly about the need for a resilient, durable, constructive outcome, but just days before the Rudd government promises to announce its 2020 emissions target. The speech was uninspiring and light on substance.

Ironically Wong spoke immediately following Mr Sylvester Quarless, Grenada's Minister for Environment, who spoke on behalf of the small island states. He made an emotional plea for global action on climate change, a plea that so far has fallen on deaf ears in the Umbrella Group.

World Leaders and Ministers arrived knowing that little progress has been made since the last meeting in Bali a year ago. The Poznan talks have been overshadowed by the incoming U.S President, lack of agreement and leadership by the EU and the global economic downturn.

However there is cause for considerable optimism that negotiations are often in this state half way through, and that many of the worst proposals especially for the world's forests have not yet been adopted.

On the broader front, a European poll run over the last few days revealed that 85% of Germans, 87% of Italians and 74% of Poles support leadership on climate change despite the economic downturn.

On top of that, in all three countries, far more people think climate action will help the economy than believe that it will hinder it.

As governments gave their concluding speeches on the final day, Tuvalu gave a plea to the world for its most basic human rights - the right to exist as a country and not be submerged under sea level rise and the inaction that has charactersied the Poznan talks.

There has been much talk of the need for leadership at these negotiations - 2009 must be the year talk becomes action on climate change.

 
Check out our regular 'Postcards from Poznan' for updates and progress on the climate change negotiations.

• More regular updates from Poznan >>
• The latest events in real-time - Twitter feed >>

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.

We have also ensured that disastrous outcomes for the world's forests, such as mass conversion of forest to plantations, receiving credits for harvested wood products and further incentives for logging have not progressed at Poznan - despite a strong campaign from the logging industry and their supporters.

Overall, yesterday's meeting with Climate Change Minister Penny Wong went ok - with the door open to further negotiations to advance Australia's position on the role forest protection should play in a global climate agreement.

When we arrived in Bali a year ago for the start of these talks, forest protection and the role of the world’s forests in reducing climate change was barely on the table. Now its one of the key issues in negotiating a global agreement.

More and more, governments and their departments, the private sector and our conservation colleagues are becoming aware that we have no chance of staying below a 2 degree global temperature rise unless we significantly increase forest protection, and improve forest management world-wide.

This would not have been possible without finding some fantastic allies in Poznan.
Environmental groups from around the globe including Global Witness, The Rainforest Foundation, the Environmental Investigation Agency and others have played a critical role.

The stand out performance for the conference however should go to the International Youth Delegation - who through all the procrastination by government's did everything it could to get world leaders focused on real outcomes from Poznan. Gemma Tillack represented The Wilderness Society in the youth forum.

They conducted some great actions and made an inspirational speech to the conference, reminding us all that today's youth will inherit the legacy of the Copenhagen agreement to be signed in December next year - and its resulting impact on the survival of our planet.

  
Check out our regular 'Postcards from Poznan' for updates and progress on the climate change negotiations.

• More regular updates from Poznan >>
• The latest events in real-time - Twitter feed >>

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.

But getting firm commitments on increasing forest protection to reduce emissions and increase carbon banks, as well as pushing countries to adopt tough emissions reduction targets has been a tough gig so far in Poznan.

With only 3 days to go, here is some of the latest "intelligence" on how some countries are lining up at the talks.

Australia
After setting expectations high by signing Kyoto to global applause, so far has failed to follow through with substance. Has announced a good partnership project with Indonesia for forests and peat-lands. Australia is blocking the inclusion of a 25% - 40% emissions reduction target in a new protocol, as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Canada
Possibly has shown the worst form of all countries at Poznan. Helping the Aussies push against a tough emissions target while justifying their own poor record and their alarming emissions trajectory.

Japan - See above.

Russia
See above, except occasionally throwing in strong statement about how developed countries also need to lock into reducing emissions from logging and deforestation.

United States
Who? Oh yeah, apparently they did turn up to Poznan but maybe they've been out seeing the sights. With Obama taking office in late January next year, the US have been largely sitting this one out.

European Union
Traditional leaders in these negotiations haven't entered into Poznan with a clear position. Looking shaky on committing to 25% - 40% emissions reduction targets and to financing developing countries to help them meet their targets.

NZ
Historically good on rhetoric, New Zealand greenhouse emissions are up 26% on 1990 levels. Under the newly elected National Party Government their position is likely to get worse. The new government has suspended their Emissions Trading Scheme and a moratorium on fossil fuel power stations, as well as scrapping a NZ$1billion home energy conservation package.

Ukraine
Is planning to announce a 20% emissions reduction target for 2020, and 50% by 2050. Sounds good eh? Problem is Ukraine's emissions are about 55% below 1990 levels now, so this would allow them to increase their emissions by 77% by 2020!!!

So looks like this conference needs a good shake up ... TWS style. On top of the action on the EU finance Ministers in Warsaw yesterday, the youth delegation, along with our own forest campaigner Gemma Tillack, are planning actions for the final 3 days of talks, to remind leaders that it's only 1 year until a decision on tough climate change mitigation measures are needed in Copenhagen.

Check out our regular 'Postcards from Poznan' for updates and progress on the climate change negotiations.

• More regular updates from Poznan >>
• The latest events in real-time - Twitter feed >>

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.

In particular, The Wilderness Society will work more with other environmental groups working on the "Umbrella Group" countries - especially Australia, Canada, the United States and Japan who have played a spoiling role so far at the talks, especially with regards to setting strong emissions reduction targets.

But the push for Australia to embrace strong targets has also come from some other powerful and unlikely places.

Business leaders call for Climate Action

Business leaders from 140 of the world's largest transnational companies, including Australia's Westpac and National Australia Banks, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, Lend Lease, Mirvac and Linfox issued a statement saying that the global economic downturn is no reason for countries not to adopt fast and deep emissions reduction targets.

Meanwhile Chinese Expert Climate Change Adviser Dr Jiahua Pan and Brazil's Climate Change Ambassador Sergio Serra urged Australia, Japan and Canada to pull their weight and commit to significant targets.

Today hundreds of delegates from environmental groups took the 3-hour train ride to hit the street of Warsaw, to confront the German and Polish Prime Ministers and their Cabinets, who are meeting to undermine the European Union's Climate Package with weak emissions targets and plans to get carbon credits for coal plants!

Meanwhile in Poznan, The Wilderness Society participated in two press conferences.

The first press conference was with Australian NGO's the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and OXFAM. The Wilderness Society talked about the need to protect natural forests as part of the climate package by any country who has them, and to address loopholes which might actually encourage logging in developed and developing countries in a new agreement (refer to my December 6 postcard for details).

ACF talked about the need for Australia to adopt a strong emissions reduction target of at least 25% - 40%, and OXFAM raised important equity issues for developing countries, and the assistance they need to reduce and adapt to climate change.

Then we participated in another press conference with the Climate Action Network (CAN) International. CAN is the umbrella network for the conservation Non-Government Organisations (NGO's) participating in the climate talks between now, Copenhagen and beyond. Then we met with the Australian government to push the case further. Phew!!

Tomorrow we meet with Australian Climate Change Minister Penny Wong before attending an international event she is presenting at.

 
Check out our regular 'Postcards from Poznan' for updates and progress on the climate change negotiations.

• More regular updates from Poznan >>
• The latest events in real-time - Twitter feed >>

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.

Tough emissions targets need to be set for all countries by this time next year in Copenhagen – experts say at least 25% - 40% by 2020, and 80% - 95% by 2050. But right now it’s the short term target, the target current governments will have to work to achieve straight away, that really matters.

Most of these national emissions targets will have to be met by countries domestically, but cuts to emissions from international aviation and shipping will also be important.

These targets have to be measurable, reportable and verifiable.
- That means while Poznan is about tackling climate change, much of the conference is about the accounting methods countries will be required to use to measure their emissions, what activities are in and out of calculations and what reporting standards need to be applied.

Another major issue is how developed countries will assist developing countries in meeting their energy needs in a more sustainable way than developed countries have done in the past. So a big discussion is technology transfer – ie: how to get emissions reduction technologies into developing countries as much as possible, instead of them relying on fossil fuels like coal to meet their rapidly growing energy needs.

But while some developing countries have brought some useful proposals to the table, overall talks have been slow in the first week. Most countries are keeping their cards close to their chest. Rich countries, rattled by the economic crisis, are reluctant to commit to targets or other key aspects of a new Protocol, or offer assistance to developing countries to reduce emissions of adapt to climate change.

Japan has declared that it cannot be expected to be “the ATM for the world”, while Canada has suggested that these conventions should be about information sharing that than binding emissions reduction targets. Uh oh!

The European Union, usually relied upon to take a leadership role in climate negotiations has been missing in action so far. The EU appears to have come unprepared, and is not taking a strong consensus position to the talks.

Meanwhile the United States is in caretaker mode until Obama takes office in a little over a month's time. And while Obama is talking tough on the U.S taking a leadership role on climate, he has deliberately not committed to signing Kyoto so far.

At a domestic level, Australia's Climate Change Minister Penny Wong arrives in Poznan tomorrow.

 
Check out our regular 'Postcards from Poznan' for updates and progress on the climate change negotiations.

• More regular updates from Poznan >>
• The latest events in real-time - Twitter feed >>

Two of the big discussions that relate to forests are called;

1. Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF)
– mostly concerning the emissions and carbon sequestration from agriculture and other land uses; and

2. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in developing countries (REDD)
– An instrument designed to help developing countries reduce their emissions from logging and land clearing.

One of the big problems is that there are huge loopholes in the current definitions of forests, plantations and how the emissions caused by logging are calculated.

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.

For example, the rules do not distinguish between a native forest, a plantation and a bioenergy crop, so if you log a biodiverse, high carbon storing old growth forest and then convert it into a pine plantation or bioenegry crop, this is not considered to be deforestation and the huge emissions and reduced carbon carrying capacity from this conversion do not have to be calculated.

This is what allows Australia to log massive areas of native forest, including old-growth forests considered to be the most carbon dense on Earth, convert them to plantations or intensively managed native forests, and not have to calculate the emissions from doing so.

Latest science suggests that when an old-growth forest is logged and converted to forest which is logged on rotation say every 60 years, the carbon store in the forest is permanently reduced by a massive 40% - 60%!

Also, the definition of a forest includes any area that has trees over two metres high, and create at least 10% cover in their canopy. Again this enables massive destruction of native vegetation which are large carbon stocks without being classed as deforestation.

So a key outcome for forest protection and climate change we are pushing for in Poznan is for forests to be redefined under the rules as distinct from plantations, so that plantations are treated like any other agricultural crop under LULUCF rules.

Secondly, we need REDD to apply to all countries.

Because REDD currently only applies to developing countries, developed countries like Australia, Canada, the United States, Finland and Russia with big CO2 emitting logging industries are let off the hook because they do not have to account for their emissions.

What’s good for developing countries should also be good for developed countries – the same rules should apply. So the Wilderness Society argues that REDD should apply to native forest logging in all countries, because the emissions from logging are the same whether they came from Brazil or Australia. If the atmosphere doesn’t distinguish between which country logging emissions come from, why should we?

So what should we do with the world’s forests to maxmise their contribution to reducing climate change?

1. The best outcome for the climate and nature is to permanently protect old-growth forests. The Wilderness Society is calling for a climate agreement to provide incentives to countries to protect their old-growth (primary) forests.

2. The second best outcome is to restore previously logged forests by letting them grow on and regain their carbon carrying capacity by sucking in more CO2 over hundreds of years.

3. The third best result is to encourage more sustainable management of our forests world wide.

4. And finally the fourth best outcome for climate change is to encourage plantation establishment on previously cleared land.

 
Check out our regular 'Postcards from Poznan' for updates and progress on the climate change negotiations.

• More regular updates from Poznan >>
• The latest events in real-time - Twitter feed >>

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.

We heard; "the United States is in caretaker mode until Obama takes office in January" and "the scale of the global economic crisis means we can't afford to cop the unemployment and further economic impact of agreeing to deep and fast emissions targets".

This is kind of curious given how fast the response to the economic crisis has been, and how hundreds of billions worth of bail out money has been sourced and handed out by the world's governments.

It's also sobering when you hear passionate pleas from pacific island countries like Tuvalu for urgent action before their countries are submerged under sea level rise caused by melting of the ice caps.

Reaching agreement by the end of 2009 is critical because it ensures there will be no gap between the end of the Kyoto Protocol and the beginning of the new agreement and targets.

Disappointingly Australia, along with Japan, Russia and Canada so far has been non-committal on the key issues - setting a deep and fast emissions reduction target, the base year this target is set against (it should be 1990 as it was for Kyoto) and the commitment period for the next round of targets should apply too - we believe five years is appropriate.

On a more promising front, the Australian and Indonesian governments announced a partnership on reducing emissions from deforestation, with particular focus on the Kalimantan Province.

Meanwhile the Wilderness Society team is pushing hard to make sure that real forest protection, and avoiding global deforestation and forest degradation (logging) are key pillars of a new agreement. More on that tomorrow.

There is also a massive youth presence at Poznan, and our representative Gemma Tillack, has been playing a key role with the international youth delegation.

Today the youth delegation is holding a media event/demonstration - urging governments to take immediate action on climate change and not leave the mess for future generations to clean up when it will be even harder and more urgent to fix. This scenario has massive consequences, especially for the many developing countries who will be most affected.

 
Check out our regular 'Postcards from Poznan' for updates and progress on the climate change negotiations.

• More regular updates from Poznan >>
• The latest events in real-time - Twitter feed >>

Meanwhile Japan earned the ‘Fossil Award’ as the worst behaved delegation of the day, suggesting that future emissions reduction targets be set against 2008 levels rather than 1990.

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.

All developed countries need to commit to 2020 greenhouse emissions targets of at least 25% - 40%.

Upon his election, PM Kevin Rudd vowed to play a leadership role climate change. An announcement of a low 2020 target would draw serious criticism both domestically and overseas, and seriously erode any credibility Australia gained less than a year after receiving world-wide applause for announcing it will sign the Kyoto Protocol.

The rumours have come as Germany and Norway indicate that they may aim for a 40% emissions reduction by 2020 based on 1990 levels, and Brazil proposes to reduce deforestation by 70% over the next 10 years, equal to 5 billion tonnes of avoided CO2 emissions.

Early signals about what emissions targets countries may be prepared to accept came as the Poznan talks heard more about the consequences should the talks not set a serious trajectory to reduce emissions in the lead up to signing the final agreement at Copenhagen in December ’09.

For example the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that half the world’s population in 2050 could face water shortages – that’s around 4.3 billion people.

Does a 40% emissions reduction for Australia sound impossibly high?

- Energy efficiency measures alone in Australia could reduce electricity demand by 40% by 2020. One study shows and economic benefit of around $710 million over the period 2010 – 2020.

In addition Australia has huge potential to fully utilize renewable technologies and, as The Wilderness Society is pushing here in Poznan protect native forests as carbon banks and reduce emissions by moving significant amounts of native forest logging into plantations.

 
Check out our regular 'Postcards from Poznan' for updates and progress on the climate change negotiations.

• More regular updates from Poznan >>
• The latest events in real-time - Twitter feed >>

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.

In climate negotiation speak, this issue is called REDD - Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation.

Forest Degradation is essentially logging, while Deforestation is the clearing of native vegetation for some other land-use like agriculture or cattle ranching. Problem is there are currently some major loopholes in the way these are defined which leads to bad outcomes for forests around the world.

For instance:

Deforestation - If you log an old-growth forest and convert the land to pine plantations or a crop to be used to create energy, that IS NOT deforestation, even though you have lost most of the carbon and almost all of the biodiversity that lived in the old growth forest.

Degradation - The logging industry in Australia and overseas wants a new climate deal which encourages countries to log old growth forests and convert vast areas to young regrowth native forests or plantations, arguing that young forests sequester (suck in) more CO₂. While these forest have the potential to suck in large amounts of CO₂, the loggers don't want to calculate the carbon lost by the logging itself, or the reduced size of the carbon bank. When you convert old growth forest to young trees, you reduce the size of the carbon bank in that area by as much as 60%

The logging industry also wants carbon credits for the wood products manufactured from logging. The problem here is that 80% ends up as paper products which release their carbon with 3 years on average. Even wood products like furniture release their carbon as CO₂ into the atmosphere within 80 years on average. This only ends up making climate change worse.

Today talks also continue with the Australian government, urging them to take a strong stance on forest protection, and other measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong arrives in Poznan next Tuesday.

 
Check out our regular 'Postcards from Poznan' for updates and progress on the climate change negotiations.

• More regular updates from Poznan >>
• The latest events in real-time - Twitter feed >>

On each day of the Poznan climate talks, the international coalition of environmental groups under the banner of 'CAN' (Climate Action Network) present a 'Fossil Award' to the country who for that day, has showed the worst behavior in reducing climate change at the conference.

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.

Yesterday Poland was awarded the 'Fossil Award' for its uninspiring remarks at the opening ceremony and its attempts to weaken the EU (European Unions) position on climate change.

Snubbing the host country with the opening 'fossil' sure got plenty of media over here and firmly placed Poland and other European countries on notice to agree to tough new CO₂ emissions targets and measures to help developing countries reduce emissions, especially from land clearing and logging.

Today the whole 20-something countries which make up the EU won the award for bringing no or weak positions to important aspects of the negotiations.

But with the election of President Obama, the vibe here seems more upbeat. The United States is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and Obama has agreed to sign the Kyoto Protocol, pledging last month that the U.S. 'will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations. When I am President ... any nation that's willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have an ally in the United States of America.'

Talk's cheap though and after President Obama takes office in January, their administration will have less than year to commit to tough action on reducing emissions in the lead up to the signing of the new protocol in December '09 in Copenhagen.

 
Check out our regular 'Postcards from Poznan' for updates and progress on the climate change negotiations.

• More regular updates from Poznan >>
• The latest events in real-time - Twitter feed >>

Today 11,000 people representing governments, the scientific community and academia, environmental and indigenous non-government organisations descended on freezing Poznan, Poland in what is the most important meeting ever to reach agreement on how to reduce and adapt to climate change.

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.

With the Kyoto agreement period coming to an end, the global community has given itself until December next year in Copenhagen to reach a new agreement on how to tackle climate from 2012 and beyond.

By the end of this two-week meeting, there must be a clear understanding of the key elements of a climate change action plan, and a framework for negotiations for the next 12 months about how to reduce CO₂ emissions and avoid dangerous climate change to rescue the earth's future.

The world is watching. The Poznan meeting must send a clear signal that 2009 will be the year that the world gets serious about tackling climate change.

So The Wilderness Society has sent 5 members of its campaign team to Poznan;
- Gavan McFadzean (Victorian Campaigns Manager)
- Peg Putt (International Green Carbon Consultant)
- Virginia Young (National Strategic Campaigns Coordinator)
- Sean Cadman (National Forest Campaigner)
- Gemma Tillack (Community Campaigner Tasmania)

The Wilderness Society delegation will be pushing that the protection of the world's native forests are critical to a climate change solution. Old-growth native forests are the biggest and best carbon stores and continue to sequest (suck in) dangerous CO₂ for as long as they are alive.

Logging forests destroys carbon banks, releases massive amounts of CO₂ into the atmosphere. With deforestation (tree clearing for agriculture or some other use) and forest degradation (logging) contributing over one quarter of global emissions, forest protection around the world must be a key part of any international agreement to reduce climate change.

Check out our regular 'Postcards from Poznan' for updates and progress on the climate change negotiations.

• More regular updates from Poznan >>
• The latest events in real-time - Twitter feed >>

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 >>