News
Publish date: December 9, 2007
Written by: Eivind Hoff
News
Just as the UN climate negotiations in Bali are heading into their final week, Norway has decided to offer NOK 3 billion (the equivalent of EUR 400 million or USD 500 million) to protect rainforests.
"We are very satisfied with this. Norway is showing the lead and takes the responsibility that is to be expected from a rich country," says president of the Bellona Foundation, Frederic Hauge.
"Protecting rainforests is one of the simplest and cheapest ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and it is crucial that money is put on the table in order to halt deforestation. Protecting the forests is urgent because several percent of it disappears every year," he adds.
The Stern report on the economics of climate change estimated that USD 5-10 billion would be needed every year to compensate developing countries for foregone revenue from not converting their forests into agricultural land. This estimate concerns eight tropical countries representing 70 per cent of CO2 emissions from deforestation.
In other words, far more funds will be needed in the years to come to halt deforestation, and Bellona hopes that Norway will repeat its USD 500 million pledge every year. That would be a good start.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.