Amid the bickering surrounding climate change negotiations in Bali last week, an important step was taken to address carbon emissions created by deforestation.
Contained in the final text of decisions taken at the 12-day UN Climate Change Conference was a recognition of the “urgent need” to take further meaningful action to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. A programme for further methodological work was also adopted.
The document also says that deforestation would be “an important component of a future climate change regime beyond 2012 – in both mitigation and adaption strategies”.
So, the world has just got more serious about this crucial issue, with financial incentives for developing countries, such as the World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, likely to form part of eventual action.
Other specifics contained in the Bali “roadmap” agreed at the conference include assessments of changes in forest cover and associated green house gas emissions, methods to demonstrate reductions of emissions from deforestation and estimation of the level of emission reductions from deforestation.
Furthermore, the conference also decided to encourage parties to support capacity building and undertake efforts to address the drivers of deforestation.
All these points will be included in further negotiations on a new international climate change deal, with talks set to be concluded in 2009, in time for a new deal to enter force by 2013.
