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Christian Science Monitor: Building trust tops global climate agenda

By Jennifer Morgan

Still, some US environmental-group leaders note that Obama’s 2020 number would represent a big change, especially given the trend in US emissions over the past eight years. One way to make up for the perceived lack of vigor in that target would be for the US to pursue ways to help the developing world pay for its mitigation and adaptation efforts, they say.

Financing, in fact, is a critical issue at the Poznan talks, say climate policy specialists.
Developing countries have offered the most ideas for how to set up adaptation and technology-transfer money, they say. Among industrial countries, Norway and the European Union have suggested some ideas. Norway is committing some $2.8 billion to fight deforestation. But much remains to be done.

One proposal that has gained traction among tropical and industrial countries involves earning carbon credits as a financial incentive in exchange for meeting commitments to crack down on tropical deforestation. The approach holds potential for reducing a proportion of greenhouse-gas emissions, advocates say. It also could serve as a model to show other developing countries that if they can’t commit to economy wide emissions reductions, it is possible to commit to reductions in a specific economic sector, such as cement making or forestry.

But the idea remains controversial among some environmental advocates and groups that focus on the rights of indigenous people who live in and around tropical forests.

“It would trigger a land grab that would endanger forest-dependent communities,” says Joseph Zacune, climate-change coordinator for Friends of the Earth International.

“Including forests in a carbon market would create another huge offsetting scheme that will allow the rich world to buy their way out of carbon emissions reduction.”

Mark Rice-Oxley in London contributed to this report.