U.S. blasted at Hague conference for proposed use of 'carbon sinks'

The Amazon Forest has been called "the lungs of the planet"

November 16, 2000
Web posted at: 1:19 PM EST (1819 GMT)

In this story: Using other countries' forests as 'carbon sinks' Sinks could protect forests from logging RELATED STORIES, SITES

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (Reuters) -- Environmentalists lashed out at the United States on Thursday for what they allege is a cynical scheme to turn the Amazon and other primal forests into "carbon sinks" to soak up greenhouse gases.

They said the proposal was a blatant attempt to dump the problem of global warming onto the world's poor countries and get out of making costly cuts in energy consumption at home.

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The United States, Japan, Canada and Australia all want to use wilderness areas such as the Amazon, whose trees consume carbon dioxide, to offset their own carbon dioxide emissions by literally paying for the beneficial effects.

Trading in rights to emissions has already begun between countries which produce less than their globally agreed maximum and those who, way over the red line, must pay to keep their over-pollution from pushing the global total over it as well.

"If we allow this, industrialized countries could completely avoid the need to make emissions reductions in their own countries," Greenpeace's Ben Pearson told a news briefing.

Scientists believe the average world temperature will rise by 1.5-6.0 degrees centigrade in the next 100 years, increasing the frequency of extreme weather, which has swept across part of the globe in recent months.

Green groups say the use of developing countries' forests as "carbon sinks" would be a major loophole allowing richer nations to wriggle out of emissions cuts they agreed to under a 1997 United Nations pact on climate change in Kyoto, Japan.

Earlier this week the United States and its negotiating partners floated a plan to use their own forests as carbon sinks -- another loophole according to Green groups.

Greenpeace said counting on sinks, whether at home or abroad, to make up for not reducing emissions, was scientifically questionable and politically unacceptable.

Greenpeace's Kert Davies said the Americans were seeking an "entitlement to burn more fuel because every ton of carbon they claim is saved in a sink is another ton they can emit."

Diplomats from some 180 governments are discussing the issue in The Hague before ministers arrive next week to make crucial decisions on implementing the international strategy to combat climate change agreed in Kyoto.

Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the World Wide Fund for Nature want to ban Third World sinks, which they think would lead to replacing natural forests with "tree plantations."

But some Latin American countries favor the proposal, which could be an economic boost to them, and they have the support of some environmentalists who think Greenpeace and groups are blinded by dogma to the possible advantages.

They say sinks could be a way to help protect rain forests from logging -- the biggest threat facing what some call "the lungs of the planet" in the Amazon and Orinoco basins.

Local campaign groups in Brazil have signed a manifesto calling for forests to be protected under the Kyoto agreement.

"It doesn't have to be a (loophole). It depends what the rules are. The NGOs opposing this are taking the wrong stand," said Philip Fearnside, of Brazil's National Institute for Research in the Amazon.

Greenpeace and other international groups insist rain forest protection should be dealt with separately.

They want the Kyoto agreement to push developed countries to finance poorer regions to adopt clean technologies such as solar and wind power -- for which the donors could also claim credits to offset against their pollution reduction targets.

That position is supported by a coalition of small island states threatened by severe storms and rising ocean levels.

The United States' arch-rival at The Hague, the European Union, is also close to the Green groups as it wants to create a list of clean technologies that richer countries should fund in the developing world.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
  • The Convention and the Kyoto Protocol
Greenpeace International
Friends of the Earth - US
WWF International

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