Another attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

In November, a conference will be held in Durban, South Africa, to formulate a new treaty to replace the Kyoto treaty 

In 2012, the Kyoto Convention will expire, the convention that obliges about 40 ("developed") countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the set level to which the signatory countries have committed themselves. A commitment that most of the signatories did not meet.

The upcoming date "overshadows" the gathering of scientists and representatives from 184 countries in another attempt to reach binding agreements that will stop the emissions, another attempt because as I recall the gathering in Copenhagen (2009) ended without results, now representatives are gathering in Bonn with the aim of preparing the upcoming conference (28/11) in Durban .

The main obstacle on the way to an agreement that will be acceptable and binding is the dispute between the representatives of the rich industrialized countries and the representatives of the poor countries, when the representatives of the rich countries demand to oblige the rapidly developing economies (mainly China and India) with the same indicators that the developed countries will be obliged and the representatives of the poor countries demand a lot of funding for adjustments to changes The climate (which they say happens mainly because of the activities of the rich countries).

Canada, Russia and Japan have already announced that they "will not renew their commitment". The USA (which was the biggest polluter at the time)... never committed. Most of the representatives want to find a formula that will bind the US, while the US representatives condition their agreement on the inclusion of China and India in the same measure and their commitment to the same measures in the Emissions Prevention Convention.

On the bargaining between the rich and the poor there are additional unique demands of individual countries, for example Saudi Arabia demands compensation for a decrease in profits from the sale of oil.

Until the meeting in Durban, there is a need to agree on a guideline that will allow transparency towards the completion of the establishment of the "Green Climate Fund" which should contain an amount of about 100 billion dollars that will be designated for help to developing countries as help to adapt to climate change and to develop an economy that will be based on low greenhouse gas emissions .

The establishment of the fund was decided at a previous meeting held in Cancun (last year) and it is clear that the realization of its establishment depends on the rich countries and the USA in particular.

Disturbing figures are published on the sidelines of the convention: the International Energy Agency announces that the emissions of greenhouse gases in the last year reached 30 gigatons, which is 5% more than the previous record in 2008. Experts estimated that the economic situation caused a sharp decrease in emissions in 2009, a decrease that will continue into 2010 …. Their assessment was misled.

Another report published by the US government and based on a monitoring station in Hawaii shows another record in May was the concentration of DTM in the atmosphere at 395 parts per million, compared to the concentration of 290 ppm at the beginning of the industrial revolution about 150 years ago.

From another publication in Nature Geoscience It turns out that the speed at which the concentration of DTP in the atmosphere is increasing is 10 times greater than it was in the Paleocene-Eocene era, also called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) because of the high temperatures that prevailed on the surface of the globe about 55 million years ago, temperatures high which are attributed to the increase in the concentration of DTP.

An increase at an average rate of 1 billion tons per year raised the temperature by 5 degrees above the average for 170,000 years. However, in contrast to our time, the change and the increase in temperatures occurred over a period of 20 thousand years, a time that allowed for the adaptation of the biological environment. An adaptation time that does not exist for the flora and fauna in our world because of the current rate of warming.

There is also good news. It turns out that the denser the forests and groves, the higher the adsorption of DTP. A study conducted by foresters from the University of Helsinki and published in PLoS ONE shows that although the areas of forests in the (temperate) areas studied did not increase, their capacity to absorb DTP increased.

Data collected from 68 countries with approximately 72% of the world's forests, show that proper management of the density of forests that are destined for felling allows an increase in the absorption of DTP (without an increase in the area of ​​the forest). Forests and groves that were preserved / managed correctly, gave the trees the opportunity to grow and as the trees grow, so does the density, more volume of green landscape over a given area allows for the absorption of more DTP.

"Management" of forests: felling and planting constitutes about a fifth of the (global) DTP cycle, an increase in DTP absorption in a part (of the fifth) is a significant improvement, the authors of the report claim that "in most temperate regions" there is no loss of forest areas" Which is a great improvement that gives the possibility to absorb more and more DTP.

It is important to emphasize that the study refers to artificially and fully managed forests, forests whose trees are visible and are planted in cycles to provide wood consumption. The study does not refer to natural forests in equatorial regions such as the Amazon or Congo basins!

In Brazil there is a trend to remove the protection of the Amazon forest, nevertheless, a survey conducted by the Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). It shows that the areas of equatorial forest that are protected have increased by 50% in the last five years, this is a comfort for Porta since about 90% of equatorial forests are not protected.

To the importance of proper management of forests in temperate regions, it is worth adding the fact that became clear in a new study funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The study shows that the larger the trees, the more populations of lichens and cyanobacteria develop on them, which absorb DTP twice as efficiently as those growing on the ground.

That means again, large and dense trees (and the lichens and cyanobacteria on them) absorb much more DTP. Now it remains to check if the trees (in "managed" forests in the temperate regions) grow in excessive density because of the higher level of DTP in the atmosphere, which leaves the (negative) balance?