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foreste e protocollo di Kyoto
Cari tutti,
come forse sapete una delle questioni controverse nei negoziati sulle
riduzioni delle emissioni di gas serra e' se concedere o no 'carbon
credits' in cambio della messa a dimora di alberi, che sequestrerebbero
anidride carbonica dall'atmosfera.
Le opinioni sono discordi. La Union of Concerned Scientist, per esempio,
e' cautamente favorevole perche' ritiene che questo conferisca uno
strumento in piu'(uando usato in modo appropriato) , e quindi
elasticita'...associazioni ambientaliste come WWF e Greenpeace sono
contrarie perche' sostengono che cio' portera' a frodi e alla
distruzione di foreste (semi)naturali.
Il comunicato qui sotto esemplifica quella che secondo queste
associazioni potrebbe divenire la regola .
Sara' necessario esaminare pro e contro con cautela su questa questione.
Spero interessi.
Alessandro Gimona
agimona@libero.it
--------------------------------------------
Robert Kihara,
Press Officer,
WWF International, Gland-Switzerland.
********************************************
Press Release Embargoed for 23.00 GMT on Wednesday 8 November 2000
### Kyoto Protocol could accelerate forest destruction, warn WWF and
Greenpeace
New report shows that use of carbon storage in trees may lead to
clearance
of old-growth native forest
London, UK - Relying on forest plantations to store carbon pollution
from
the atmosphere and combat climate change could accelerate the
destruction
of old-growth native forest around the world, according to a report
commissioned by Greenpeace and WWF, the conservation organization. The
report, released today, challenges the assumption that carbon storage
in
trees will yield environmental benefits. It concludes instead, "the
economics of the developing carbon sequestration market is becoming an
additional driver for clearing native forests."
Whether industrialised nations will be allowed to gamble on forests as
temporary carbon stores rather than reduce emissions of global warming
gases at source is one of the most controversial topics in two weeks
of
intergovernmental negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol that open in The
Hague, Holland, on Monday 13 November. Under the Protocol,
industrialized
nations have to reduce their emissions 5 per cent below their 1990
levels
by 2008-2012. The United States, Japan, Australia and Canada want to
avoid
domestic efforts to control their rapidly growing carbon emissions
from
energy use by counting forest carbon storage and so claim to be
meeting
their Kyoto targets. Furthermore, the Protocol contains a perverse
incentive in allowing countries to claim a carbon credit for planting
trees
but not incur a carbon debit for deforestation.
Today's report, entitled "The Clearcut Case: How the Kyoto Protocol
Could
Become a Driver for Deforestation", examines a number of Australian
projects as case studies of what could emerge as a dangerous new
international threat to forests and the species they support. (1)
The report outlines how Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), Japan's
largest power utility, is implicated in the destruction of native
forest in
the Tamar Valley in the Australian state of Tasmania, and its
replacement
by fast-growing eucalyptus plantations intended for carbon credits
under
the Kyoto Protocol. TEPCO's investment of Aus$10 million (ca. US$5
million)
in Tamar Tree Farms accounts for 3,000 hectares of eucalyptus
plantation
which are expected to yield TEPCO 130,000 tonnes of carbon credits
that
could be offset against rising carbon emissions in Japan. The report
shows
how this project is not an isolated incident but is compatible with
the
forest-clearance programmes of the Australian and Tasmanian
authorities.
"Claiming credit for carbon stored in trees is a blatant attempt by
some
countries to cheat on their Kyoto commitments," said Bill Hare,
Greenpeace's Climate Policy Director. "This report shows that it is
also
bad for the environment, leading in some cases to the destruction of
old-growth forest to make way for 'carbon-sink' plantations."
"The only way to combat climate change is through deep cuts in
emissions of
global warming gases," said Jennifer Morgan, Director of WWF's Climate
Change Campaign. "The Tasmania project is an example of what could go
terribly wrong for forests around the world if Japan, Australia,
Canada and
the United States get their way. We could see native forest
destruction
accelerate but still see no benefit for the global climate. This is
potentially the largest of a number of loopholes in the Kyoto climate
treaty that governments urgently need to close."
The threat to forest conservation will be exacerbated if decisions on
Kyoto's "Clean Development Mechanism" promote 'carbon sinks' projects
by
industrialised nations in developing countries, where gathering of
accurate
data on forests would be considerably more difficult than in Tasmania.
Greenpeace and WWF are calling on the 184 Parties to the Climate
Convention
to exclude reliance on carbon sinks from the Kyoto Protocol, and from
its
Clean Development Mechanism. The organizations want industrialized
nations
to achieve their Kyoto commitments through domestic reductions in
global
warming gases.
"The global forest commons is facing its biggest challenge since the
Industrial Revolution," said report author Tim Cadman of the Native
Forest
Network. "Many forest-dependent species are on the brink of
destruction.
How ironic it would be if the Kyoto Protocol were complicit in sending
some
of them over the edge."
Proposals for relying on plantations to soak up carbon overlook the
vulnerability of forests to global warming, and the urgency of cutting
emissions. According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change
whose Second Assessment Report from 1995 is the current international
scientific consensus on climate change, one third of the world's
forests
will undergo major changes as a result of global warming. Entire
forest
types may disappear and large amounts of carbon could be released into
the
atmosphere during transitions from one forest type to another.(2)
For further information:
**Robert Kihara, Press Officer, WWF International, Gland, Switzerland.
Tel:
+41 22 364 9550;
E-mail: rkihara@wwfint.org
**Andrew Kerr, Public Affairs Manager, WWF Climate Change Campaign.
Tel:
+31 6 5161 9462 (mobile); E-mail: rrek@compuserve.com
**Jon Walter, Press Officer, Greenpeace International, Tel: +31 20 524
9608; E-mail: jwalter@ams.greenpeace.org
**Bill Hare, Climate Policy Director, Greenpeace International. Tel:
+31 6
2129 6899 (mobile); E-mail: bhare@ams.greenpeace.org
**Tim Cadman, Tel: +61 2 6655 9841; E-mail: tcadman@nfn.org.au