Office of Climate Change
THIS article summarises key developments over the last week in the field of climate change leading up to the UN Climate Change Conference which will take place in Cancun, Mexico in December this year. *REDD Plus: Brazil Amazon forest to be privately managed
Brazil will auction large areas of its Amazon Forest to be managed by private timber companies and cooperatives to help reduce demand for illegal logging. 

The government will grant private companies logging concessions for nearly one million hectares (2.47 million) by year-end and, within four to five years, nearly 11 million hectares (27 million acres). Existing concessions total only 150,000 hectares (370,000 acres).
Unlike the illegal slash and burn practice that has already destroyed nearly 20 percent of the world’s largest rainforest, managed logging (sustainable forest management) extracts only as many trees as the forest can naturally regenerate.

*EU adopts negotiating position for Cancun
At their meeting on 14 October 2010, in Brussels, Belgium, the Council of the EU Environment Ministers stressed the need for a stepwise approach to climate change solutions, building on the Kyoto Protocol and the outcomes of the Copenhagen climate change conference, and paving the way for a global and comprehensive legally binding framework, integrating the political guidance given in the Copenhagen Accord.
Ministers indicated that decisions to be adopted in Cancun should cover adaptation, mitigation, technology, capacity building, REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, as well as the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks), agriculture, monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV), finance and market-based mechanisms. They also expressed support for a decision in Cancun to establish a registry to start capturing and facilitate matching of actions and support.
Ministers committed to making rapid progress towards developing sound guidelines, rules and modalities for REDD+ actions, in order to operationalise the REDD+ mechanism through a decision in Cancun, ensuring environmental integrity and securing safeguards, in particular with regard to biodiversity, consistent with the EU’s objectives at the Nagoya Biodiversity Conference; recognising the rights and knowledge of indigenous peoples and local communities; and improving forest governance structures, supported by appropriate MRV requirements.
In addition, ministers noted that the Cancun Climate Change Conference (CCCC) should urge the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organisation  to develop a global policy framework that does not lead to competitive distortions or carbon leakage, in accordance with the principles and customary practices of ICAO and IMO, taking into account the principles and provisions of the UNFCCC in the use of potential revenues.
Ministers also committed to working  with all UNFCCC parties to develop guidelines for a coherent and balanced system for MRV, including international consultation and analysis; underlined the need to promptly operationalise a Climate Technology Centre and Network; and emphasised their willingness to strengthen bilateral and regional alliances with a view to building bridges between parties that reinvigorate and feed into the UNFCCC, stressing the importance of the partnerships that the EU and its member states have initiated with other UNFCCC parties on REDD+, MRV and mitigation, transparency of fast-start financing, adaptation and access to renewable energy, in preparing the ground for Cancun.

*EU says ICAO recognises European carbon market
The European Union has claimed that participants at an international aviation meeting have accepted the EU’s plan to cap emissions by domestic and foreign airlines serving Europe as of 2012.
The European Commission said the ICAO reached a “breakthrough” agreement at its meeting to curb global aircraft discharges of greenhouse gases beginning in 2020. Such pollution is blamed for global climate change, which the EU is handling in part by adding airlines to its emissions trading system in less than 15 months.
The agreement, reached in Montreal after almost a decade of deadlock at ICAO, will cover more than 90 percent of worldwide air traffic, the EU said.  Emissions from international aviation account now for 2 to 3 percent of global greenhouse gas discharges and their share is expected to rise in the coming decades as the industry grows, according to the EU.

*Britain commits billions to green growth
Britain will commit around 3 billion pounds ($4.72 billion) to fund low-carbon technology as part of a review chiefly aimed at cutting its budget deficit, the government said last week.
The Conservative finance minister George Osborne pledged 1 billion pounds for investment in a commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration plant at a power station as part of a UK goal to become a world clean technology leader.
Osborne said the government would set aside another 1 billion pounds for its Green Investment Bank (GIB) and 860 million pounds for its renewable heat incentive, which pays homes and businesses for using renewable heat, such as ground source heat pumps.
It would devote 200 million pounds mostly to the development of offshore wind power projects.

*IPCC pledges reform
The UN Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)  at a meeting in Busan, South Korea, agreed to tighten fact-checking in reports that help guide the world’s climate and energy policies and to set up a “taskforce” to decide on wider reforms by mid-2011.

The IPCC, which shared the 2007 Nobel peace prize with the former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, has been under fire after errors were pointed out in its last report in 2007. It said that global warming could melt all Himalayan glaciers by 2035 – centuries before the worst-case thaw.
On 30 August, the Inter Academy Council (IAC), grouping experts from national science academies, called for “fundamental reform” of IPCC management and said panel leaders should serve only one six-year term, rather than the current maximum of two.

Chairman Pachauri, re-elected in 2008 to a second term, said a one-term limit, if adopted, would apply only to future IPCC leaders when he steps down in 2014 after presenting the next report.

The IPCC agreed new guidelines to tighten checks, as well as rules for fixing mistakes and for handling material that had not been peer-reviewed by scientists.

*UNEP launches reports from carbon mapping project

The UN Environment Programme – World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) has launched carbon maps showing how carbon stocks in Asia, Africa and Latin America overlap with biodiversity hot spots. The maps were launched at the 10th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), convening in Nagoya, Japan.
According to UNEP, the maps pinpoint places where investments in carbon can contribute to community livelihoods, forest conservation and fighting climate change. The maps overlay the carbon held in the vegetation and soils of terrestrial ecosystems with population density, protected areas and economic activities. UNEP launched carbon mapping publications for Cambodia, Ecuador, Argentina, Nigeria and China on carbon, biodiversity and ecosystem services. The maps were produced with the aim of assisting governments in setting priorities for carbon investments.
*EU to set CO2 offset limits in ETS in six weeks
The European Commission will within six weeks propose how to restrict the use of UN-backed carbon offsets in the third phase of its emissions trading scheme (EU ETS).
The 27-nation bloc plans to limit the number of offsets called certified emissions reductions (CERs) from industrial gas projects that can be used in its carbon market from 2013-2020, Jos Delbeke, director general DG Climate Action, said at an industry event in Brussels, Point Carbon reported.
He added the bloc will publish a proposal ahead of U.N. climate change talks in Cancun, which start on November 26.
*EU set to overshoot its Kyoto emission targets
A large fall in greenhouse gas emissions brought about by a reduction of industrial activity led by the economic crisis has put the EU on a fast track to meet its Kyoto commitments, but Austria, Denmark and Italy are falling behind, according to new figures.
The EU-15 cut their average annual greenhouse gas emissions by 253 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent beyond what would be required to meet their collective 8% target during 2008 and 2009, putting them collectively 5.9% below the 8% Kyoto reduction target, according to the latest progress report by the European Environment Agency (EEA), published on 12 October.
However, the report noted that the estimates are based on the assumption that EU countries overachieving their targets will be able to make up for any shortfall by others. It identified Austria, Denmark and Italy as the black sheep that will have to achieve further emission reductions in sectors not covered by the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) or by buying more carbon credits than already planned.

Prepared by: The Office of Climate Change, October 23, 2010
For additional information, please contact:
Office of Climate Change, Office of the President
Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown
Tel. 223-5205
Email: info@lcds.gov.gy , Web Site: www.lcds.gov.gy