The 13th Conference of the Parties, COP, to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCC, and the 3rd Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, will be hosted by Indonesia on the island of Bali from December 3 to 14, 2007.
As is the case with many such global events, there is a frenzy of preparatory activities and outputs promoting climate change – related symposia, panel discussions and articles in the media.
What is missing at times is awareness by citizens across the globe and particularly at the national levels, of how such events and activities will impact for the good on their lives and on the environments within which they live.
This particular event in Bali, however, has generated a great deal of public interest because of the wealth of information that has been made available on global warming and its consequences.
Al Gore’s award winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, the Stern Report, the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, and the highly publicised visits to Antarctica and the Amazon by the Secretary General of the United Nations, have all served to focus attention on the threat to the planet from increasing warming fuelled by emissions of greenhouse gases, forest degradation, land use change such as the transformation of natural ecosystems into farmlands and unregulated human activity such as dumping of solid waste, and pollution of waterways by unregulated mining and leaching of agricultural chemicals and fertilizers.
Enough evidence is available, as recorded in the Fourth Assessment Report by the IPCC, which assesses worldwide climate science in three working groups and in the context of three broad categories: 1) the physical science; 2) climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability and 3) mitigation of climate change.
In its release last week, the IPCC warned that we are facing a global catastrophe and that global warming is an unequivocal fact. It has assessed that humans are 90 percent likely to be the main cause and, if the trend is not arrested, we can expect a sea level rise of between 28 and 43 cm and a probable increase in global temperature of between 1.8 and 4 degrees Centigrade.
What is comforting to know is that since the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, the warnings by scientists and others who are close to the impacts of such change, are now being taken seriously. The UNFCC crafted global strategy, and its Clean Development Mechanism, seeks to combat the negative impacts of climate change. It has placed emphasis on reducing the release of greenhouse gases by energy consumption dependent on using fossil fuels such as coal and oil and on promoting the development of renewable energy platforms such as photo-voltaic, using energy from the sun, wind turbines, biofuels and ‘run of the river’ micro and mini-hydro electric facilities which do not require dams that can inundate large swathes of land rich in biodiversity and which may also require displacement of communities.
In acknowledging the role played by forests in absorbing carbon dioxide, the strategy was further complemented by the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCC in 1998, which offers carbon credits for reforestation -the replanting of destroyed forests. It is estimated that destruction of tropical forests contributes at least 20 percent of all greenhouse gases and this only relates to the above ground vegetation. What has not being given deserved attention is that destruction of such forests may also release the amounts of carbon stored in the soil as the forested areas are degraded. Stewardship of standing forests under the current Kyoto Protocol does not offer any financial benefits to countries such as Guyana, but offers only carbon credits for reforestation, which is the replanting of forested areas that were degraded or destroyed. The fact that standing forests are also storehouses of the world’s terrestrial and freshwater diversity and that they provide critical ecosystem services should mean that countries that have standing tropical forests must receive significant incentives in order to maintain low rates of deforestation as a global service. Those countries that have more than 50 percent forest cover and low annual deforestation rates are referred to as High Forest Low Deforestation (HFLD) rate countries. HFLD countries in the Guiana Shield, such Guyana, Suriname, French Guyane, and Colombia should work closely with other countries with large tropical forests such as Brazil, Indonesia, Belize, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Zambia to ensure that they are provided with substantial incentives for their stewardship of these forests and the benefits they provide to mitigate global warming.
Even though incentives are being considered for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) in developing countries, the fact that HFLD countries like Guyana, maintain low deforestation rates anyway and thereby reduce the level of greenhouse gases both from above ground vegetation and stored carbon in the soil, may result in such HFLD countries being left out of any new framework being proposed by the UNFCC.
Following the climate change related speeches by Guyana’s President and also the Minister of Finance at the opening of the recently hosted Commonwealth Finance Ministers Conference, it is anticipated that Guyana’s President will continue his advocacy at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference (CHOGM) being held this week in Uganda.
Given Guyana’s experiences of the impacts of flooding on the coast and in the hinterland on its economy, human populations and biodiversity, it would be of significant importance in the context of Article 13 of the Constitution, if Civil Society would be privy to the nature, content and desired outcomes of Guyana’s participation at COP13 in Bali. At the least, the focus of Guyana’s preparatory work for COP13 in Bali and its interventions at that forum must be to build consensus among the participating HFLD countries to pursue a strategy aimed at achieving the outcome of a post-Kyoto carbon credit mechanism that provides incentives not only for reforestation in countries where tropical forests have already been destroyed, but equally for those that are exercising responsible stewardship over their intact forests.
Developing countries such as Guyana also require funding of the technology for adaptation and for implementation of measures to mitigate climate change impacts and such funding must also be seen as necessary commitments by developed countries and the global and regional financial institutions.
Creating economic value for the carbon stored in our tropical forests, while ensuring sustained conservation of forest assets and reducing the impact of climate change, will also open up opportunities for economic development that generates wealth to provide the goods and essential services required by the population of HFLD countries.
