California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and 10 other governors from the US, Brazil and Indonesia are sending a letter to US President Barack Obama, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urging them to include forest protection in international and national climate change policies.
The state governors represent California, Illinois, Wisconsin in the US; Acre, Amapa, Amazonas, Mato Grosso and Para in Brazil; and Aceh, East Kalimantan and Papua in Indonesia. They signed the letter during the Governors' Global Climate Summit 2 taking place in Los Angeles.
"It is a vital sign of leadership that California, which has the world's seventh largest economy, and states with half of the world's remaining tropical forests have joined forces to make living forests worth more than dead ones," said Steve Schwartzman, director of tropical forest policy at Environmental Defense Fund.
"Including forests in U.S. emissions control efforts will help achieve greater overall reductions at lower costs than would be possible without it."
The 11 states agreed on basic principles to allow reduced deforestation and degradation (REDD) to be used in the US to meet targets for reducing global warming gas emissions. The principles establish a template for what may become the first compliance-grade REDD assets. The Waxman-Markey climate bill passed by the US House of Representatives in June includes provisions for the use of REDD in a national carbon market.
