Climate Talks Near (Sweeping) Deal on Preservation of Forests

[kpete]

Source: New York Times

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: December 15, 2009

COPENHAGEN — Negotiators have all but completed a sweeping deal that would compensate countries for preserving forests and in some cases other natural landscapes like peat soils, swamps and fields that play a crucial role in curbing climate change.

Environmental groups have long advocated such a compensation program because forests are efficient absorbers of carbon dioxide, the primary heat-trapping gas linked to global warming. Rain forest destruction, which releases the carbon dioxide stored in trees, is estimated to account for 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions globally.

The agreement for the program, once signed, may turn out to be the most significant achievement to come out of the Copenhagen climate talks, providing a system through which countries can be paid for conserving disappearing natural assets based on their contribution to reducing emissions.

A final draft of the agreement for the compensation program, called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation or REDD, is to be given on Wednesday to ministers of the nearly 200 countries gathered here to hammer out a framework for a global climate treaty. Negotiators and other participants said that though some details remained to be worked out, all major points of disagreement — how to address the rights of indigenous people living on forest land and what is defined as forest, for example — had been resolved through compromise.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/science/earth/16forest.html?_r=1&hp

[OffWithTheirHeads]

1. Lieberman will fillibuster!

The Dems will cave. That's what they do.

[FBaggins]

2. Filibuster is actually the easier standard in this case

Senate treaty approval requires a larger 2/3 majority.

IOW... there would be no filibuster because republicans would prefer to keep as little "debate" as possible... and then simply vote "no".

[optimator]

3. where does the money come from?

if its from taxpayers then FUCK THAT SHIT.
It needs to come from logging and oil companies, or any other responsible for deforestation.

[jwirr]

4. Just one question before I jump on this band wagon. After Hillary &

Bill lost the fight for health care did they get anything else passed that we really wanted? If we cannot do this have we lost all of our power to do anything meaningful?