Peat Fires Greet Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force Assembly

Thick smoke from burning peatlands hangs over the capital of Central Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo every morning. The smell from the smoke is pervasive, a constant reminder of how Indonesia has become the third largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. Driven by relentless and ill advised palm oil expansion, Kalimantan’s carbon rich but relatively [...]

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REDD Forest Agreement Still Missing Basic Elements for Sustainability

As negotiations wrapped up in Barcelona at the UN Climate Talks, the opportunity for a robust agreement to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries (REDD) is dangling from a wire. The latest negotiating text, which parties will be working on at the opening of the Copenhagen UNFCCC COP15, contains no provisions to [...]

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New research questions value of REDD project in Sumatra

David Gaveau et al. have released an innovate paper that takes a critical look at the widely touted Reduced Emissions through avoided Deforestation and Degredation (REDD) project in the Ulu Masen Ecosystem of Aceh, Sumatra. Sumatra is ground zero for the oil palm and pulp-and-paper industries, and, like many tropical habitats, suffers from a severe [...]

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Seeing the Rainforests for the Trees in the Senate Climate Bill

Senators Kerry and Boxer have said that they are on track to introduce the first step for Senate version of the ACES climate bill next Wednesday, September 30th. The draft will reportedly include an emissions reduction target of 20% from 2005 levels by 2020, an modest improvement over ACES’ 17% target, but nowhere near the [...]

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The Waxman – Markey Bill: A step forward for REDD?

In our globalized world, Northern hemisphere dwellers are connected to the rainforests of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) more than ever. Images of endless rainforests and isolated communities  have been replaced with today’s reality of industrialized settlements spread throughout a patchwork of remnant tropical forests. Palm oil and pulp and paper production bring key [...]

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Slices of the pie: Indonesia’s potential USD 15 billion in REDD funds

Daniel Murdiyarso, a researcher with CIFOR – one of the world’s top forestry and conservation research organizations – estimates that Indonesia stands to gain around USD 15 billion a year from the trading of forest carbon credits, known as Reduced Emissions through avoided Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). This, of course, is dependent on REDD being [...]

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Papua New Guinea’s Carbon Cowboy scandal widens to include the Australian Government

The Sydney Morning Herald reported Sep 9th that the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade collaborated with Carbon Planet, a private carbon trading firm caught up in a firestorm of corruption, illegality, and false carbon credits in Papua New Guinea (Chris Lang and Natasha Loder have been covering the story closely on their blogs). [...]

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The Carbon Logic Problem Statement | Grist

The Carbon Logic Problem Statement by Ken Ward. All too often those debating the solutions and proposed actions to tackle global warming fail to challenge the assumptions. While it's important to deal with emissions it can be argued that the root causes of emissions lie farther upstream and can more effectively deal with the challenges we are facing. Cutting emissions is good. Investing in clean energy and cutting emissions before the fuel is readied is better.

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Forest Hit Job

Check out this fascinating post about organized crime, carbon offsets and smuggling illegally cut forest from Earth Island Journal’s EnvironmentaList. Call it a case of fact following fiction. Moviegoers may remember that the plot of the latest James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, pivoted on a scheme by a global crime cartel to use a [...]

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REDD: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

This is cross posted on Grist Apparently, neither rain or large groups of NGOs descending on them to discuss climate change negotiations serves to deter people in Bonn from enjoying their orchestra in the park. That’s how the Climate Action Network meeting (an umbrella group of NGO actors) was serenaded today by traditional band music. [...]

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