Tiempo Climate Newswatch

"For the first time, we are able to show that the rate of deforestation has decreased globally as a result of concerted efforts taken both at local and international level," commented Eduardo Rojas of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) previewing the results of FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010. The net loss of forest slowed to 5.2 million hectare a year during the past decade. "A lower deforestation rate and the establishment of new forests have helped bring down the high level of carbon emissions from forests caused by deforestation," said Mette Løyche Wilkie, coordinator of the FAO Assessment. Nevertheless, the situation in some countries is still alarming, she warned.

An international study has concluded that forest protection represents one of the most practical strategies to limit climate change. "Deforestation leads to about 15 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, more than all the cars, trucks, trains, ships and planes on earth. If we fail to reduce it, we'll fail to stabilize our climate," said lead author of the study, Taylor Ricketts from the World Wildlife Fund. "Creating and strengthening indigenous lands and other protected areas can offer an effective means to cut emissions while garnering numerous additional benefits for local people and wildlife," he continued. The study's authors recommend that forest nations can strengthen the role of protected areas in their REDD strategies by identifying where indigenous lands and protected areas would most effectively reduce deforestation rates and associated emissions. In addition, governments should establish national monitoring systems and also insurance mechanisms for illegal logging or forest fires, provide indigenous groups and local communities the information and capacities they need to participate and distribute payments transparently to reward those responsible for reducing emissions.

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat, has called on the industrialized nations to show "real leadership" in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and move swiftly in providing the first round of financial support to developing nations. "There’s no formal deadline for mobilizing the short-term finance, but there’s an emotional deadline," de Boer said. "There's a strong feeling on the part of developing countries that rich nations have not met their financial commitments in the past and they now want to see the countries deliver."

Commenting on prospects for the next round of climate treaty negotiations, de Boer commented that "I'm for the first time in my life going to be recycling my ambitions. My expectations for Copenhagen was not a legally binding treaty but a functioning architecture on adaptation, mitigation, technology, financing and capacity building which you can then either turn into a new treaty or not. So I’m just going to recycle those ambitions and take them to Cancún." de Boer steps down as executive secretary in July and a number of developing countries have expressed interest in nominating a successor. Costa Rica has already nominated its lead climate change negotiator Christiana Figueres.

The United Nations has launched a greenhouse gas emissions calculator for use by the world's cities, enabling a common standard of comparison. "In reducing greenhouse gas emissions, cities are part of the solution: city officials are discovering new ways to get people out of cars and into rapid transit buses; to harness the methane released by landfills and turn it into energy; to support compact urban development and not urban sprawl," said Anna Tibaijuka from the Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT).

The Greenhouse Gas Standard calculates emissions on a per capita basis and allows cities to compare their emissions over time, across cities and in specific sectors such as energy, transportation or waste. It is now available for more than 40 cities. The goal of its creators, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UN-HABITAT and the World Bank is to eventually have all cities around the world represented. "Cities can be a key catalyst towards the international aim of keeping a global temperature rise to under two degrees Celsius by 2050... There remains an ambition gap between where we are and where we need to be in 2020 — bigger cuts by cities may be one route towards bridging this divide," observed UNEP head Achim Steiner.