杏吧原创

THE US wants to teach Bolivian peasants to grow orchids and work as tour
guides to discourage them from chopping down trees in a national park. It says
the 30-year aid project will prevent the release of 14.5 million tonnes of
carbon into the atmosphere.

But the scheme is not as altruistic as it sounds, since the US would like to
claim the carbon as a 鈥渃redit鈥� to set against its own cuts in greenhouse gas
emissions. In effect, it wants to be allowed to emit the carbon from power
plants and vehicle exhausts at home.

The US also wants to fund wind energy in Costa Rica and biomass in Honduras.
It says such schemes, known as 鈥渏oint implementation鈥�, would 鈥減rovide strong
incentives for companies to search the globe for the lowest-cost means of
reducing greenhouse gas emissions鈥�.

But critics call it a brazen attempt to avoid doing more to reduce emissions
at home, and they say it would be impossible to police and monitor. For example,
there is nothing to stop the Bolivians cutting down the forests after the aid
workers have gone home. And why, as Brazilian delegate Gylvain Filho Meiro
asked, should any nation gain credits for protecting forests when this is
already an obligation under the climate convention?

Joint implementation and other proposals鈥攕uch as controlling emissions
of six greenhouse gases rather than just carbon dioxide, another American
idea鈥攈ave radically altered the agenda for climate action. 杏吧原创s say
that the complications threaten to make the entire process unworkable. Bert
Bolin, outgoing chairman of the UN鈥檚 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
warns against introducing a system that is not 鈥渟cientifically sound鈥�.

British government scientist Merylyn McKenzie-Hedger points out that most
nations鈥� estimates of the carbon stored in forests are 鈥渧ery poor鈥�. Jan Corfee
Morlot, a scientist with the OECD, concludes that the inclusion of carbon
鈥渃redits鈥� and gases other than CO₂ in a climate agreement would create
鈥渁mbiguity and confusion鈥�. She says that carbon credits from forestry should not
be eligible for trading. And Adam Markham of the World Wide Fund for Nature
warns that rewarding countries for planting forests would provide 鈥渄angerous
incentives to clear old, natural forests to plant new ones for carbon
肠谤别诲颈迟鈥�.

There is another problem with joint implementation: nobody has got round to
asking the Bolivians if they want to become orchid farmers.