Tiempo Climate Newswatch

"Governments lit a beacon in Cancún towards a low-emission world which is resilient to climate change. They committed themselves to a maximum global average temperature rise of two degrees Celsius, with further consideration of a 1.5 degree maximum," noted Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, as the latest round of climate negotiations began in Bonn, Germany. "Now, more than ever, it is critical that all efforts are mobilized towards living up to this commitment," she continued. As an immediate step, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) has called for the voluntary emissions control pledges made in Cancún to be made legally-binding. "If we're going to get started urgently we need to provide the confidence which you can only get from a legal agreement, so let's take what we did in Cancún and make it binding," said Leon Charles, AOSIS chief negotiator.

The Bonn talks are covering, amongst other issues, the future architecture of the international climate regime and the design of the finance, technology and adaptation institutions agreed in Cancún. Extending the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012 should be the negotiators' main priority, according to Argentina's ambassador to the United Nations, Jorge Arguello, speaking on behalf of the G77 group of 130 developing nations and China. "The G77 and China clearly looks to Durban to move forward with a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol," he said. Canada, Japan and Russia, who ratified the existing Protocol, and the United States, who did not, have all, in effect, rejected involvement in any extension of the Kyoto Protocol. Arguello described a second round of commitments without Japan, Russia and Canada as "possible," depending on "the level of solidarity those countries want to show to the rest of the planet." Figueres has warned that there will be a gap between the Protocol's first and second commitment periods because of the time needed to amend the agreement and then have it ratified by member states.

The contribution of deforestation to climate change is being offset by rising forest density in some countries, a survey of 68 countries concludes. In Europe and North America, for instance, the carbon stored in forests increased over the past decade despite no change in total area. "The great role of density means that not only conservation of forest area but also managing denser, healthier forests can mitigate carbon emission," commented study leader Aapo Rautiainen of the University of Helsinki in Finland.

A 50 per cent increase in the area of tropical forest managed sustainably has occurred in just five years, according to the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). "We are, of course, happy to see the progress that has occurred in the last five years, but it still represents an incremental advance, and some countries are still lagging behind," said Emmanuel Ze Meka, ITTO executive director. "We fully support the emergence of new markets for 'green' timber and the recent push to include forests in a climate change accord, but in many countries these developments alone may not be transformational," he added. Demand for certified wood is not likely to affect a large part of the forest estate and the expected returns may not materialize, he explained. In some nations, conflict has hampered the development of the institutions and actions necessary for sustainable forest management. Elsewhere, resources are not available to adequately supervise the forest management regime. "[The] report shows that less than ten per cent of all forests are sustainably managed," commented Andy White, coordinator of the Rights and Resources Initiative. "The report also shows that reforming tenure and supporting community forestry are needed to prevent the continued loss of tropical forests and the industrial clearing and logging that leads to deforestation, poverty and human rights abuses."

The role of mangrove restoration in capturing and storing carbon has been quantified under a new methodology adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. "The fact that this new methodology is now part of the Clean Development Mechanism should allow us to achieve similar results for other types of coastal and marine ecosystems," commented Carl Gustaf Lundin of the Global Marine and Polar Programme of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). Other "blue carbon" approaches involve salt marshes, seagrasses, kelp forests and wetlands.

"The new methodology will open up opportunities for mangrove restoration on a far greater scale," said Bernard Giraud of food company Danone, who partnered with IUCN, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and Sylvestrum in its development. "It will have a very significant impact on local communities and will stimulate companies to make corporate-level investment and grasp new carbon offsetting opportunities in coastal regions," he explained. The mangrove ecosystem provides many services to local communities, including coastal protection and livelihood support. "People only begin to realise that it's a win-win all round and then you throw in the carbon sequestration and the value of your mangrove forests, it goes up again," said Taholo Kami of IUCN Oceania. "And these are the sorts of things we are trying to get governments to commit to, recognising the importance of mangroves on a national scale and then engaging communities of landowners, and one way or another to manage what they have."