Indonesia to profit from emission reductions

For years, Indonesia has made money by chopping down its forests. Now it wants to earn billions by preserving what is left, according to a report from Planet Arc in the lead up to this week’s UN climate change talks in Bali. 

The huge archipelago, with about 10% of the world’s tropical rainforests, is pinning its hopes on UN forum, which started this week.  About 190 countries will gather on the Indonesian resort island to try to hammer out a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, a global pact aimed at fighting global warming.

The government is backing a scheme that aims to make emission cuts from forests eligible for carbon trading, the report said.

Experts estimate Indonesia could earn more than $13 billion by preserving its forests if the carbon trading plan gets support in Bali.

“Carbon will be the new valuta (currency),” Wetlands International Senior Program Manager Marcel Silvius told Reuters.

“In the coming years we may see investments in millions, in the next decade it may be hundreds of millions.”

Indonesia’s forests are a massive natural store of carbon, but environmentalists say rampant cutting and burning of trees to feed the pulp, timber and palm oil sectors has made the country the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions.