Climate Action Network Europe / Forests and Climate Change

Introduction | What are Carbon Sinks | CAN-E Position Papers/Links

Introduction

Greenhouse gases are a natural part of the atmosphere. They trap the sun’s warmth like a greenhouse, and without them, the earth would be too cold to live on. This is called the Greenhouse Effect. Human activity is putting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The main contributors of greenhouse gas pollution include the burning of fossil fuels and emissions from deforestation. This build-up of greenhouse gases causes global warming and climate change. The world’s forests cover about 30 percent of the total land area, just under 4 billion hectares. Forests play a number of important roles, but perhaps the most important is regulating the world’s climate.

The carbon cycle is one of the major systems that drives the Earth’s climate - it is essentially the way the Earth breathes. Forests influence the global climate by taking in carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and releasing oxygen back into the atmosphere through respiration. Forests also play a number of other important roles. They collect and store water which is released into the environment through the hydrological cycle, they provide food and shelter to many people, plants and animals, and provide recreational and commercial activities. These many diverging interests have at times caused conflict within the forests. (No Carbon sinks in the EU ETS)

Deforestation
Deforestation is the permanent conversion of forests to mainly agricultural land. Deforestation contributes around 25 per cent of global greenhouse emissions through the rotting and burning of vegetation. It also threatens biodiversity by destroying the habitats of plants and animals that live in the forests. Many people who depend on the forests for their culture and survival are also under threat.

CAN International Briefing Paper - Reducing Emissions from Tropical Deforestation

CAN International Submission - Addressing Approaches to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries: Approaches to Stimulate Action - March 2006

Impacts of climate change on forests
Forests will not escape the impacts of climate change. Scientists (IPCC, 2001) predict that the impacts will include an increased risk of forest fires, more intense droughts and more frequent floods associated with El Niño events in different regions. With warmer temperatures, forests will face more threats from diseases and insects.

Forests that are already vulnerable to other threats will be further threatened by the impacts of climate change. Climate change has already starting impact on forests with recent droughts in the Amazons, fires in Europe and insect outbreak in the Boreal.

Carbon Sinks
The inclusion of sinks offers no climate or biodiversity benefits. NGOs have often argued that temporary sinks projects should not be used to offset permanent emissions from fossil fuels due to the risks of re-release. There continues to be an unquantifiable risk that accounted LULUCF stocks could turn to sources at some point in the next century and destroy the mitigation effort that they had. Therefore real action must be taken to reduce industrial emissions rather than delaying action by using forests (known as sinks) to offset greenhouse gas emissions.

Full Carbon Account for Russia, IIASA Interim Report IR-00-02.

Taking Credit. - David Suzuki Foundation

Sinks in the Kyoto Protocol: A dirty deal for forests, forest peoples and the climate

The Carbon Shop: Planting new problems (Plantations campaign)

Tree Trouble - FoEI

Planting problems - FoEI

Climate Change Convention – sinks that stink