Unbelievable but true! Risk of international decision to ignore normal logging emissions in developed countries.

International negotiations on climate change are continuing, despite the disappointments of the big Copenhagen meeting of last December.

Some funny business is afoot. Just when we need incentives to protect forests to reduce emissions, a draft decision for developed countries that ignores emissions from normal logging of forests is on the table.

This vital decision on how to treat land and forests will have a big impact on how Australia handles industrial logging, and whether our native forests ever get protected in the name of keeping carbon out of the atmosphere. The Wilderness Society’s international climate team is in the thick of it, pushing for recognition of the important role of forests and natural ecosystems of developed countries in reducing emissions and storing carbon.

Our native forests in south-eastern Australia are not only havens for wildlife and biodiversity but some of the most carbon dense in the world. The large expanses of natural forest in other developed countries like Canada and Russia are also important carbon stores. Cutting them down creates substantial emissions, which means that simply ending logging is a fast way to cut those emissions.

The tropical forests of developing countries are getting different treatment. A mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is being developed. Australia is at the forefront of this important initiative.

	Forestry fires hit the atmosphere in Huon Valley, Tasmania.

It is a breathtaking display of double standards that Australia and other developed countries are not prepared to take the same action at home. It is even worse that they are working to entrench rules under the Kyoto Protocol that effectively hide logging emissions and create a loophole in meeting developed country targets.

Important international meetings in Oslo and Bonn are coming up in the next few weeks.
We’ll be there, pushing this important issue to the fore and working for a rewrite of developed country forest obligations, as if the climate mattered.

Further Reading

Rich nations accused over 'logging loophole' at Bonn climate talks
The Guardian online   |   8 June 2010
Bid by rich countries to change forestry rules would create accounting loopholes that would hide true emissions, developing nations say. More >>

Conservation groups concerned about logging loophole
Update from Bonn, Germany - Listen to the Wilderness Society's Peg Putt on radio National. More >>

Forestry Loophole in U.N. Climate Text Could Stoke Global Warming
Rich nations are pushing to lock in a logging loophole at the United Nations climate talks in Bonn that would give them leeway to increase forest carbon emissions - rather than reduce them - and not pay a price, a group of advocates warned.