Eliasch Review Released

A long awaited report to the government on how to best tackle climate change has been released.  The Eliasch Review was produced by an independent team led by Johan Eliasch, the Swedish businessman and special adviser to Gordon Brown.  The review examines how international funds could be used to make it financially worthwhile to the owners of the world's rainforests to leave them standing, thereby reducing the devastating impact of deforestation on climate change and the environment.

The Review focuses on the amount and type of financing that "can, if designed well, lead to effective reductions in forest carbon emissions to help stabilise greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and avoid the worst effects of climate change." It also examines how mechanisms to address forest destruction can contribute to poverty reduction, as well as providing incentives to preserve other ecosystem services such as biodiversity and water.

The report shows how the scheme would reduce climate change for a relatively low cost and by putting money into developing countries that host the rainforests.  This action would have an added impact by reducing poverty and encourage sustainable development.  Ultimately the forest would be worth more standing than cut down as its economic potential as a standing resource was developed.

Urgent action to tackle the loss of global forests needs to be a central part of any future international deal on climate change.

The rainforests absorb and store carbon dioxide, which is the primary mechanism of climate change, and host more than half of the world's species.

The money would come from an extension of the carbon trading mechanisms already proposed.  The report states that "Integrating forests within a global cap and trade system would create opportunities to tackle a large part of current CO₂ emissions while at the same time delivering substantial finance to forest conservation and sustainable forest management."

Many of the ideas expressed in the report echo the work of Cool Earth, the charity Johan Eliasch co-founded and co-chairs with Labour MP Frank Field. The Cool Earth model of developed world money being used to create a greater standing value for rainforest through sustainable development and collaboration of the local inhabitants of the rainforest, is scaled to a global scheme in the report.

A deal that provides international forest financing could not only reduce carbon emissions significantly, but also benefit developing countries.

The reports  proposals do not offer an easy way out of carbon reduction for governments. The caveat "if managed well" is used at the start of the report and several commentators have already raised questions about whether it is going to be implementable.  A debate needs to be had but as the Eliasch Review makes clear with its common sense observations,  if we don't act now to stop the deforestation it won't matter how much we cut carbon emissions and therefore, as the report  says"..... forests will need to form a central part of any global climate change deal"

To read the Eliasch Review in full you can access it as an Adobe PDF file at:

http://www.occ.gov.uk/activities/eliasch.htm

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