This image shows burning and deforestation of the Amazon forest to make grazing lands.
Credit: NASA LBA-ECO
COPENHAGEN: A substantial deal to halt deforestation of the world's tropical rainforests is just about the only part of the U.N. negotiations that has made major headway over the last two weeks.
Deforestation is a major contributor to our greenhouse gas emissions, and is responsible for around 17% of the total, more than the entire transport sector. Despite this, reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) was not included under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which aimed to limit global warming.
25% less deforestation
Now negotiators from across the world - including developing nations that hold 95% of tropical forests - are close to agreeing upon a deal that would see deforestation cut by 25% within the next five years and by 50% by 2020. The eventual goal, stated in the text still being negotiated, is to start to reverse global deforestation beyond 2030.
Significantly, forests also act as a carbon sink, which "play a key role in buffering against the full effects of fossil fuels," said Richard Betts a climate scientist at Britain's Met Office.
The Amazon alone removes around 1.79 billion tonnes of carbon a year from the atmosphere, this is significant proportion when you consider that total fossil fuel emissions are 8.5 billion tonnes a year, he says.
"If we lose the forests, not only do we emit more carbon... we reduce our capacity to remove other carbon from the atmosphere, so it's double whammy."
Cheaper option
Most developed countries have so far committed to reduce their emissions to between 10 and 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 - even though many scientists argue that a reduction of 40% will be necessary to keep global warming below dangerous levels.
Much of this reduction will have to come from a transfer to renewable energy and new technologies to capture and store carbon dioxide - but this will be expensive.
Cutting greenhouse gasses, by compensating developing nations to stem deforestation, presents a much cheaper short-term solution, and is likely to cover around half of the reduction in emissions required between now and 2020.
"Any global deal on climate change must take into account the significant role forests play in combating global warming," said James Leape, the director general of the international wing of the World Wildlife Fund.
"Agreement in Copenhagen - coupled with progress on national initiatives - will be a signal to investors that REDD can and will succeed, and will ensure forests are more valuable standing than cut down."
"The science of forests and climate change shows irrefutably how important forests are in mitigating and adapting to climate change," said Andrew Mitchell an academic at Oxford University in England and director of the Global Canopy Program, a coalition of organisations supporting rainforest research.
Remaining issues
"This is one of the best deals on the table at Copenhagen for getting carbon out of the atmosphere quickly and at a price that the world can well afford," he said.
Remaining issues that have made it to high level negotiations, taking place over the next few days, are questions over finance from developed nations and details of how the projects will be administrated and monitored within developing countries.
"I think we probably will have a REDD agreement here in Copenhagen," said Nigel Purvis of Climate Advisors an NGO based in Washington DC. "But will countries want the forest agreement to move ahead of the rest of the negotiations?" he asked.
"Get going on forests now"
"Don't hold REDD hostage to the current impasse in the negotiations," said Stewart Maginnis of the World Conservation Union (IUCN). "If we are going to stabilise atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases by 2020, we urgently need REDD... up and running as soon as possible."
Negotiations with heads of state and ministers are expect to go throughout the day Friday and possibly over the weekend, but conservationists are hoping for an agreement on forests before the leaders depart Copenhagen.
"If all of these things comes together we can get going on forests now and not continue to watch them burn while we wait for a treaty to be worked out," said Mitchell.
