One after the climate deals are on for years, but the overall environment problems are still considerably prevailing, with the effects of climate changes already injuring the environment across the world.
The buzzwords ‘global warming’ and ‘reducing greenhouse gas emissions’ seems running parallel, leaving no much hopes of merging. But, many governments don’t seem to be losing hopes on these lines – as is revealed by Indonesia.
The country is pushing for including deforestation in any agreement at the December’s U.N.-led climate talks to be held in Bali, on global warming combating.
The environment minister fixes all his hopes at the conference, which is supposed to initiate talks on fighting global warming and sanction a new deal by 2009, though the existing pact concerning the Kyoto Protocol will run out in 2012.
Although, the Kyoto obliges about 35 rich nations to cut emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12, allowing them to pay poor countries for curbing emissions, paying the countries for avoiding ‘deforestation’ is not eligible as yet.
The Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar told Reuters,
It (reduced emissions from deforestation) has to enter the agenda so that developing nations such as Indonesia can benefit. Indonesia will benefit from the carbon trade. Almost 85 percent of emissions come from land use change, which includes deforestation.
We are backed by countries with vast forest areas such as Papua New Guinea, Congo, Brazil, Costa Rica and other equatorial countries in the climate negotiations.
Indonesia has a total forest area of more than 225 million acres, or about 10 percent of the world’s remaining tropical forests, according to a portal on rainforests.
Considered by Greenpeace as the ‘fastest deforestation-occuring’ region in the world in 2000-2005, Indonesia perhaps is taking the right initiative at the right time — as each year the country loses forest area equivalent to 300 soccer pitches!
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