In a nutshell (via Anna Collins): …”developed countries want to cheat on their emission reduction targets by setting rules here for their forests that would allow them to actually increase their emissions instead of decreasing them.”

If dealing with climate change was a game, to win we would have to reduce our emissions (like CO2) and protect the carbon sinks that keep greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere (like forests). Unfortunately, dealing with climate change is a game that we all win, or we all lose. Cheaters in this game mean we all lose.

The rules, LULU-what?

LULUCF (Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry — another terrible UN acronym) gives developed countries the ability to factor forest management and land use into their accounting for how much they’re contributing to climate change and whether they’re on track with promised pollution cuts.

Forest management and land use are the biggest areas of potential for mitigating climate change. So it’s no surprise that accounting for and encourage the protection of forests is a big deal in climate negotiations.

For developed countries that are part of this framework, UN climate talks have helped us come a long way toward protecting forests and other carbon sinks.

The cheat & the cheaters:

LULUCF contains loopholes that pose a serious threat to effective climate change mitigation. The loopholes in forest management accounting would allow developed countries to increase their annual emissions by approximately 400 Mt CO2 annually and not account for it. That’s a loophole big enough to hide all of the emissions from Spain in one year.

Countries exploiting this most are: Germany, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Austria, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

The emissions loophole works by allowing countries to forecast an increase in emissions and use this higher level as a ‘projected reference level’ or baseline against which to measure their emission reductions. The loophole is also being used to hide emissions from bio-energy.

What it means for the rest of us?

We all lose. UN Climate Talks have come a long way to develop these rules; a 400 MT greenhouse gas pollution loophole is massive and completely inappropriate. Without effective tools to protect our forests, dealing with climate change becomes near impossible.

How do we fix it?

The loopholes must be closed. All developed countries must agree to two new guiding principles which are:

1. The rules being negotiated should result in an absolute reduction in net emissions;
2. Carbon reservoirs (forests etc.) in natural ecosystems should be protected.

For our part, follow progress on LULUCF by tracking our posts with this tag: LULUCF. We’re also watching the great reporting by Canadian Forests & Climate campaigner, Chris Henschel. Check out his daily updates here: Forests and Climate Change