The European Union’s environment head has embraced goals to halve global deforestation by 2020 and reduce net forest loss to zero by 2030. Announcing a policy proposal on forest sustainability, the EU environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas, proposed using proceeds from the sale of emissions allowances in the
EU ETS to pay for forest preservation in developing countries via a Global Forest Carbon Mechanism.
The proposal follows
an EU-commissioned report released last week by Johan Eliasch that recommended similar goals.
The Commission is also proposing a law to stop illegal timber imports into the EU by demanding timber suppliers produce guarantees of their wood’s sustainable production. A
study by environment group WWF in July claimed that a fifth of all timber imported by the EU, more than 20 million cubic metres, is illegally harvested. It says the latest EU proposal does not go far enough in eliminating unsustainable imports.
Dimas told a news conference that 5 per cent of the €50 billion expected to be raised from auctioning of EUA permits from 2013 could go into a global fund to pay for avoided deforestation. Support has grown significantly over the past year for such a global system, an approach that has come known as
REDD, or Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation.
Dimas said climate change and the loss of biodiversity demand a solution to the high rates of deforestation, under which forest areas the size of Greece is lost each year. "In ten square kilometres of tropical rainforest, there are more species than in the entire EU," he said.
Carbon offset credits created under an international REDD mechanism might be allowed to be used by EU governments to meet 2020 emissions reduction targets but the Commission appears to have ruled out their use by firms covered under the EU ETS. A Commission paper seen by Reuters argued that REDD credits would flood that market with cheap offsets and undermine efforts to see energy and industrial emissions cut within Europe.
The Commission recommends a pilot phase for government use of REDD credits from 2013.
Reuters 16,17/10/08, Financial Times 18/10/08