October 24, 2006 | posted by Michael Baxter in Uncategorized |

With all the talk about renewable energy, about growing our fuel in the ground, about using crops, it’s easy to forget that the true bogey man of climate change is de-forestation. The big drawback with growing corn or sugar as an alternative to oil is that the land used is often former rain forest, and scientists believe the carbon dioxide stored in any given area of rain forest will always be much much greater than the carbon that can be saved by using that area to grow biofuels.

Brazil is ahead of the game in using sugar as a means to power its vehicles, and from one point of view it’s a hero of the global war against climate change. And yet, take into account that this sugar is often grown on former rain forest, all of a sudden its halo starts to slip.

Now the World Bank thinks it has come up with the answer: Carbon trading.

“Imagine a poor farmer cutting down a hectare of rainforest, rich in biodiversity, to create a pasture worth US$300 ” said the World Bank.
“The trees, cleared and burned, release 500 tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. Meanwhile, firms in industrialized countries are paying many times the value of the cleared land-about US$7,500-to meet their commitments to limit the same amount of carbon dioxide emissions. ”
“The trees are worth more alive storing carbon, than they would be worth if burned and transformed to unproductive fields,” says Kenneth Chomitz, lead author of a new World Bank report on tropical forests. “Right now, people living at the forest’s edge can’t tap that value.”
“Global carbon finance can be a powerful incentive to stop deforestation,” said Fran#231;ois Bourguignon, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, Development Economics of the World Bank. “Compensation for avoiding deforestation could help developing countries to improve forest governance and boost rural incomes, while helping the world at large to mitigate climate change more vigorously.”
But that doesnt mean bio fuel is dead, in fact it could be used to reduce air pollution, while at the same time help reduce poverty. This is how.
Many developing countries cite agricultural subsidies as the main factor behind their poverty. They can’t trade their way to growth, because industrial countries use subsidies to produce agriculture products, when the comparative advantage for producing these products lies with agricultural based economies. But, if the EU, Japan and US were to restrict these subsidies to crops grown for use solely as bio fuel or biodiesel, the market for food crops would be freed up, while at the same time industrial countries could continue to protect their farmers’ jobs.
For further information
World Bank Advises Better Forest Governance And Use of Carbon Markets to Save Tropical ForestsUN