As negotiators get to work in Copenhagen, an alarming loophole in how emissions from land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) would be accounted for in a global climate agreement remains a major obstacle.
The loophole could result in up to one billion tons of CO2 annually, roughly the equivalent of Japan's annual emissions, being ignored by industrialised countries. One of the core issues is whether or not countries will account for the full amount of emissions from the forestry sector, as they are required to do for every other sector.
Austria, Finland and Sweden, some of the European Union's most forested countries, are promoting alternative accounting systems where countries will not account for emission increases from forestry as long as they are planned. The rest of the European Union and most other industrialised countries have followed and supported this position.
"A global agreement to address dangerous climate change cannot work without trust between nations and this loophole provides a great opportunity for developed countries to manipulate the system and erode that trust," said Kim Carstensen, leader of the Global Climate Initiative at WWF.
"It is the essence of hypocrisy that developed countries would propose such weak rules for themselves while requiring the necessary rigor from the developing world on emissions reductions from deforestation and forest degradation under the REDD provisions of a global agreement."
As trees grow, they bind CO2 from the atmosphere in their plant mass. Cutting trees leads to decay and changes in the soil which emits CO2 and other greenhouse gases. LULUCF was created to take account of these substantial emissions and provide incentives for mitigation action in the land-use sector.
The lack of credible accounting rules would mean that a country could increase emissions dramatically without this showing up in its carbon accounts.
"This is like saying that we won't count emissions from new power plants as long as they are planned. A loophole like this could completely undermine the entire accounting system," added Carstensen. "They are jumping at the opportunity to hide a billion tons of emission reductions through a simple accounting trick. This is not the kind of leadership the world has been looking for."
