Oslo: Developed nations pledged more than
USD 4 billion today to finance a programme meant to help poor
countries protect their forests and slow global warming.
An agency monitoring the aid will be up and running
before UN climate talks start in Cancun, Mexico, later this
year, the European Union's climate commissioner said at a
conference on deforestation in Oslo.
Also, Indonesia agreed to a two-year moratorium on
issuing new permits for forest destruction as part of a $1
billion deal with Norway that would pay Indonesia a fixed sum
per ton of CO2 emissions reduced through rain forest
preservation. Norway has had a similar deal with Brazil since
the mid-1990s.
Deforestation, the burning of woodlands or the
rotting of felled trees, is thought to account for up to 20
percent of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as much
as is emitted by all the world's cars, trucks, trains, planes
and ships combined.
The new programme called REDD Plus, for Reducing
Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation will encourage
rich nations to voluntarily finance forest-protecting projects
while coordinating that aid to avoid waste and ensure
transparency.
It was approved but not implemented at the UN
climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December.
In Oslo, Germany, France, Norway, the US, Britain,
Australia and Japan pledged USD 4 billion to finance REDD Plus
through 2012, with Denmark and Sweden adding USD 73 million
more to the effort on today.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, May 27, 2010, 23:45