As you probably know, one of the greatest repositories of carbon are forests and peat bogs. The concern raised by an international cap and trade program is that countries will protect fast growing forests (likely replanted and not indigenous) and other "spectacles" and not the big carbon storing forests, like peat forests.
See the story in the New York Times today on Indonesian forests.
The conference in Copenhagen is divided into two groups - the "COP" or "Conference of Parties" and the "CMP" or "Conference of Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol". The later CMP is to take up deforestation which accounts for approximately 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. For certain countries, halting deforestation is considered the largest and most effective way to curb emissions.
In the book I am reading, The Global Deal: Climate Change and the Creation of a New Era of Progress and Prosperity, Stern's blueprint weaves in techniques for adaptation and mitigation together and notes that deforestation is key to bringing financially responsible policies to address climate change.
- "The first is to make much more efficient use of energy."
- "The second is to halt deforestation."
- "The third is to put existing (or close to existing) technologies to work quickly."
- "The fourth is to invest strongly in new technologies."
The proposed policy described well in the NY Times article and goes as follows: "Developing nations that preserve forests would be paid with carbon credits that they could sell to industrialized nations seeking to meet emissions reduction targets. Though the program’s specifics will probably take months or years to be worked out, more than a dozen projects of the United Nations program are already under way in Indonesia, backed by such diverse entities as conservation groups, government[s], [investment banks] and [..] companies."
As I am assigned portions of mitigation for the conference, I will be learning about this aspect a great deal!
