Forest protection will be rewarded with billions of dollars

Specific measures continue to be the main theme at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Bali (Indonesia).

On December 5, delegates from the countries worked together to find a mechanism for buying and selling emissions quotas so that developing countries could sell their emissions quotas to developed countries. In addition, blocking deforestation is also one of the central themes.

Reuters quoted scientists as saying that deforestation increases about 20% of CO2 causing global warming. Deforestation, or at least reducing the level of destruction is considered an important task of the new climate treaty.

An environmental protection member called for forest protection in Bali on December 5 (photo: TTO)

Accordingly, a plan called REDD will help developing countries earn billions of dollars by simply maintaining forests in the Amazon and Congo basins. The previous Kyoto treaty did not include bonus terms for developing countries if they maintained the forest area. If this is agreed, this will be an appropriate incentive for developing countries to pay more attention to forest conservation and planting.

Currently countries that hinder the negotiation of new agreements are defined as the United States and some countries with emerging economies such as China and India. The Spiegel newspaper cited sources from the White House as saying that the US is seeking to establish alliances with China and India to refute the imposition of mandatory emission reductions. The United States hopes that both China and India will jointly announce their decision not to accept mandatory emission reductions.

Meanwhile, the International Food Research Institute has announced that global warming will seriously reduce global food production, especially in African countries. The new report shows that poor countries will be more affected than rich countries due to low agricultural production, and that farming is affected by rainfall. Joachim von Braun, the author of the report, said: "Increasing demand for food and fuel will lead to tremendous price increases. In the days when falling food prices are probably over."

The United Nations hopes that this two-week conference is the premise to complete a larger environmental decree in 2009 to replace the Kyoto Decree that will end in 2012.

THANH TUAN