U.S. joins $3.5 bln scheme to fight deforestation

Richard Cowan, Reuters 16 Dec 09;

Logging debris covers an area that was clear cut by a timber company on private land in the Umpqua National Forest near Drain, Oregon May 15, 2008. REUTERS/Richard Clement

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The United States has pledged $1 billion as part of a $3.5 billion scheme as initial financing toward slowing deforestation, a major contributor to climate change, a U.S. government statement said on Wednesday.

Australia, France, Japan, Norway and Britain are also part of the forest protection plan announced at U.N. climate talks in Denmark where world leaders are trying to seal the outlines of a pact to avoid dangerous global warming.

The U.S. government said the money would be contingent on an ambitious political agreement on fighting climate change coming out of the Copenhagen talks.

The money is meant to help fund immediate steps from 2010 to 2012 to develop a U.N.-backed scheme meant to reward developing nations for saving carbon-rich tropical forests.

The scheme, called reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), has had wide support from rich and poor countries in the talks in the Danish capital and kick-start funding has been a key demand from developing nations.

"Protecting the world's forests is not a luxury. It's a necessity," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in the statement from Copenhagen.

"This substantial commitment is reflective of our recognition that international public finance must play a role in developing countries' efforts to slow, halt and reverse deforestation," he said.

Deforestation is responsible for nearly a fifth of mankind's greenhouse gas emissions and curbing forest loss is regarded as a key way to brake the pace of global warming.

Forests such as the vast Amazon jungle or the peat forests of Borneo island in Southeast Asia soak up and lock away large amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide, acting like lungs of the atmosphere.

REDD is aimed at putting a price on the carbon those forests lock away or are released if cut down, providing a financial incentive to keep them standing.

"This is a very positive and encouraging step," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told Reuters. "This can help the atmosphere for negotiators in Copenhagen," he said.

The talks have stumbled on emissions targets by rich nations, financing for poor nations and arguments over the final shape of any new legal agreement to fight climate change.

"If we manage to stop deforestation, we'll have averted a third of all emissions we need to cut by 2020," Stoltenberg said. Norway says it has given more cash to projects for slowing deforestation than any other developed nation.

"This is what's needed to break the logjam of the REDD negotiations here in Copenhagen and spark the additional funding needed to address the global challenge of deforestation," said Andrew Deutz, Director of International Climate Policy for The Nature Conservancy.

"This $1 billion pledge from the United States should be an appetizer and the U.S. should also serve up the main course for further mitigation and adaptation funding."

(Writing by David Fogarty; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Ailing climate summit gets 22-billion-dollar boost
Shaun Tandon Yahoo News 17 Dec 09;

COPENHAGEN (AFP) – Wealthy nations pledged some 22 billion dollars Wednesday to bankroll the war on global warming, delivering a huge shot in the arm to a UN climate summit marred by wrangling and violent protests.

Japan led the way by promising to stump up a whopping 1.75 trillion yen (19.5 billion dollars), including 1.3 trillion in public funds, for developing nations on climate change if a comprehensive deal is reached at Copenhagen.

It was also one of five countries -- along with Australia, Britain, France, Norway and the United States -- that said they would set up a fund to fight the loss of forests, a leading source of the rising temperatures that scientists warn will cause droughts, plagues and storms if unchecked.

"Japan as a country takes very seriously its responsibility in the international community," Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa said as he announced the biggest financial offer yet for climate change.

Europe has already said it would give 7.2 billion euros (10.6 billion dollars) towards an envisioned fund worth 30 billion dollars to help developing nations tackle climate change over the three years from 2010-2012. Related article: The political price of failure in Copenhagen

The United States has yet to announce a contribution, although the White House has said it will offer a "fair share."

The package is viewed in Copenhagen as a sign of goodwill on longer-term finance, which is a core part of an overall deal for rolling back climate change.

In a joint statement, the six governments also said they would collectively dedicate 3.5 billion dollars from 2010 to 2012 in what they hoped would be just the starting point for a deforestation fund by wealthy nations.

The announcements were intended to provide fresh momentum as delegates feared an overwhelming amount of work remained to seal a deal ahead of the summit's finale on Friday when around 120 world leaders are due in Denmark.

After a day marked by finger-pointing, Britain's climate minister Ed Miliband feared a deal could slip away.

"People can kill this process, kill the agreement with process argument," Miliband said, warning the talks were at a "very dangerous point." Copenhagen talks: Update on the positions

Developing countries, led by China, accused host Denmark of a lack of transparency by suggesting language for the agreement without full consultation by all sides on the 194-nation summit. Related article: China opposes 'carbon tariffs'

"There's a group of countries who think they are better than us in the South, in the Third World," said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who railed against "the imperial dictatorship" of the West.

The anti-capitalist theme was picked up on by Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's veteran president who is the target of Western sanctions over alleged human rights abuses.

"When these capitalist gods of carbon burp and belch their dangerous emissions, it's we, the lesser mortals of the developing sphere who gasp and sink and eventually die." Related article: Maverick trio scoff at the West at climate summit

The leaders of Bangladesh and Nepal pleaded for the summit to be ambitious, warning they faced some of global warming's worst ravages.

"Bangladesh's greenhouse gas contribution is negligible, but it is one of its worst victims," Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said.

Tensions also flared outside, where police used clubs and tear gas to stop some 2,500 activists who tried to march on the tightly guarded Bella Center.

Police said they rounded up some 260 demonstrators, some of whom clashed again with the guards of their makeshift jail in a former beer warehouse.

Activists were outraged after the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is running the 12-day conference, turned away thousands who were registered, saying the building was at maximum capacity.

The summit climaxes Friday when the leaders including US President Barack Obama try to lay out a strategy to deal with climate change after the end of 2012, when obligations run out under the landmark Kyoto Protocol.

Obama, due here Friday, has offered to cut US carbon emissions by 17 percent by 2020 over a 2005 benchmark, a figure that aligns with legislation put before Congress but is well below pledges by the European Union and Japan.

"The president is hopeful that his presence can help," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, as US lawmakers tried to dash through business and catch a plane to the Danish capital.

In Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with African leaders and appealed for help for the Congo basin, home to the world's second biggest forest, warning they "cannot on their own maintain a forest that is the heritage of humanity."