Tell PM: Kyoto only answer to climate woes

Adelaide Advertiser
Friday 30/3/2007 Page: 20

WE all know climate change is a global problem that needs global solutions. So the Federal Government's announcement of a $200 million fund for developing nations in the Asia-Pacific to reduce deforestation as a way to counter climate change should be just the ticket, right? Well, yes and no.

It is important to help our neighbours protect their forests, but it is also crucial that we ratify the Kyoto Protocol because that will do even more to help them tackle climate change. The remaining rainforests of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are enormously important. They provide food, medicines and reliable clean water to thousands of forest-based communities. They are home to millions of unique birds, plants and animals.

Increasingly, these forests are also being valued by the developed world for the crucial part they play in regulating global carbon. The clearing and burning of tropical rainforests contributes about a quarter of annual global carbon dioxide emissions and this had been rising sharply in the Asia-Pacific region, identified as a "carbon hot spot" by the Global Carbon Project.

In Papua New Guinea, huge tracts of pristine rainforest are being cleared so single-species oil palm plantations can be established. In Indonesia, tropical peatlands are being drained and burned at such an alarming rate that it is adding two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year to our shared climate problem.

That's equivalent to nearly a tenth of the greenhouse gas emissions that are generated from burning coal, oil and natural gas. So, yes, a plan that promises to involve Australia in slowing the destruction of the world's forests and promoting sustainable forest management, as the Prime Minister's commits to, is worthy. But is it enough? No.

Another global effort exists to tackle global warming. It's called the Kyoto Protocol, which more than 150 countries have ratified. Only two developed countries have not: the U.S. and Australia. Through the Kyoto Protocol's "clean development mechanism", billions of dollars are being invested in renewable energy projects in nations such as Indonesia and China, helping them cut greenhouse pollution.

By not ratifying the protocol, we are missing out on huge investment opportunities helping countries that are struggling to meet their Kyoto targets. More than 500 projects, worth about $2.5 billion, are registered by developing counties under the mechanism. A further 1450 projects are in the pipeline between now and 2012.

This means Australian companies, many of which already have the expertise and the connections in these countries, are being denied access to more than $39 billion in investment opportunities simply because the Federal Government refuses to be part of the climate-change fight. Also, we should be ending logging in our own old-growth forests and making big cuts to Australia's greenhouse emissions.

And we could do much more to stop the scourge of illegal logging in countries to our north. To cut off the market that drives forest destruction, Australia should ban imports of illegally logged timber and support an effective timber certification scheme, so timber buyers can be confident the wood they buy comes from responsibly managed forests.

Former World Bank economist Sir Nicholas Stern said this week Australia should take up the challenge to cut greenhouse emissions by 30 per cent by 2020. This is a big challenge, but it is one Australia must address if we want to show the world we are serious about getting on top of climate change.

Don Henry is executive director of the Australian Conservation Foundation.

EU aims at big cuts

• In early March, the 27 European Union countries committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the EU would increase this to 30 per cent if "international partners'' did likewise.
• Days later, Tony Blair announced details of a new Climate Change Bill aimed at legally binding targets for the UK to cut CO2 emissions by 26 to 32 per cent by 2020.
• Neither of the major federal parties in Australia has a target for reducing emissions by 2020.
• Sir Nicholas Stern says the costs of acting worldwide on climate change are much less than the costs of inaction. "We don't start from a good place, but it's not too late," he says.