Wrap up of Copenhagen and what it means for the world’s forests
I have arrived home after attending the international climate change negotiations in Copenhagen and I have had some time to talk to my colleges about what happened in Copenhagen and what it means for the protection of the world’s biodiverse natural forests, and our forests here in Australia.
Here is a summary of what happened in Copenhagen and what it means for the world’s forests.
There is no doubt about it, overall the UN Copenhagen Climate Change conference was bitterly disappointing. There was no agreement on a global ambitious and fair climate deal that would help to avoid dangerous climate change.During the meeting a major rift occurred between the developing countries and the developed countries. This was largely due to the failure of rich developed countries to commit to a legal binding agreement that required them to reduce their annual greenhouse gases emissions by 40 – 45% by 2020 (on 1990 levels).
In addition, the refusal of Australia and other developed countries to transparently account for all their logging emissions contributed to the failure in Copenhagen. Distrust festered when it was known that even the promised emissions reductions by developed countries were under a cloud of accounting trickery from their land use and forestry sectors. The lack of trust between countries and the absence of commitments to long-term funding and ambitious science-based emission reduction targets resulted in the failure of the meeting to produce a desperately needed global climate change deal.
The only ray of light was the progress made on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in Developing countries (REDD. This progress on REDD was made despite the refusal of developed countries, like Australia to commit to protecting their own natural forests before placing an expectation on developing countries to protect their forests.
Going into Copenhagen there was a major glaring omission in negotiating text for the next global climate change agreement– it did not include protecting the world’s natural forests This was despite the fact that it is essential that next climate deal includes measures to protect the world’s natural forests. Around 20% of annual global emissions come from the clearing, logging and disturbance of forests. We simply can’t turn the corner and avoid dangerous climate change without protecting natural forests and making deep cuts in industrial carbon pollution.
The remaining intact tropical forests of developing countries including the forests of the Amazon, the Congo, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea will be affected by the outcomes of the next climate deal. We worked hard and succeeded in making sure the draft REDD deal included specific language about incentivizing the protection of natural forests in developing countries. This was not an easy job because over the past year the logging industry has been working to heavily influence the climate deal to make sure it does not protect the world’s forests.
We meet with the Australian Government and their negotiating team to convince them of the urgent need to protect the world’s forests in the lead up to Copenhagen. We delivered about 14 000 letters to Prime Minister Rudd asking him to protect the world forests, including Australia’s forests which are some of most carbon dense forests on the planet, in the week before Copenhagen. The jury is still out on if the Rudd Government will act now to make deep and early cuts in our annual greenhouse gas emissions by protecting and restoring Australia’s forests and woodlands.
The fate of Australia’s precious forests is also tied to the outcome of the climate negotiations. Under the current Kyoto protocol, the climate impact of forestry operations doesn’t have to be accounted for. Therefore Australia doesn’t officially recognise the massive amount of carbon emissions caused by the logging, clearing and burning of our forests.
All forests are important in fighting climate change, so of course we were trying to achieve an upgrade of the treatment of forests in developed countries in the new climate agreement.
The double standards between what developing countries may do in the forests and what developed countries would do were breathtaking in Copenhagen. Australia and other developed countries were under pressure at the conference to compulsorily account for large carbon emissions caused by logging which they have so far evaded under the Kyoto Protocol. But developed nations like Australia and Canada were trying to secure unacceptable accounting rules that would have hidden their logging emissions. We helped expose this accounting loophole which would have suited the logging industry nicely.
It is still vital that we do what we can here in Australia and over the next 12 months at the upcoming UN meetings to make sure that developed countries like Australia stop cheating on how they report and account for logging emissions. With the collapse of the negotiations on the treatment of forests in developed countries at Copenhagen, Australia now has the opportunity to show good faith for Mexico by firstly reporting accurately what is actually happening to our forests and secondly moving to protect them as we are asking our neighbours in Indonesia and PNG to do.
With your support I am sure we can ensure the protection and restoration of Australia’s forests and woodlands as a immediate climate mitigation measure taken by the Australian Government and we can continue our international efforts over the next 12 months so we can secure a global climate deal that protects the world’s natural forests and help secure a safe climate for our future.
Gemma Tillack is Climate Change and Forests Campaigner with The Wilderness Society
