Lawmakers push for deforestation credits in ETS[fr][de] 

The Parliament's environment committee will today discuss a proposal on addressing deforestation to tackle climate change, co-drafted by Olajos and Romanian MEP Magor Imre Csibi (ALDE). The resolution, scheduled for adoption before the June elections, will not have an immediate impact on EU climate legislation, but could influence future developments.

"The reason we started this is because every year, thirteen million hectares of forest will disappear, which is equal to the territory of Greece," Olajos said, adding that recent talks in the Parliament had also made clear that the EU's target of halting biodiversity loss by 2010 is "unrealistic".

Current policies simply do not go far enough, he emphasised, calling for new measures that recognise the need to preserve forests in Europe, instead of predominantly focusing on rainforests as before. He noted in particular that there is an urgent need to halt massive deforestation in Eastern Europe, where biodiversity is still much higher than in the West, largely due to the Communist past and relatively lower development levels.

Olajos suggested that financing for reforestation activities should come partly from the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS), with a certain percentage of auction revenues earmarked for the purpose. Forest credits were not included in the ETS, but the text of the bloc's climate package agreed in December states that the EU will have to adopt a rule on how to take into account emissions related to forestry by 2012 unless a new post-Kyoto climate agreement sets the framework, he added.

"If deforestation is a global political challenge, the EU must be a leading force in this field. Not only because we are one of the biggest importers in this trade, but also because we have to introduce best practice," Olajos said, adding that the Parliamentary resolution will formulate the EU position in the UN climate negotiations.

The MEP acknowledged that some parts of the Kyoto Protocol are counterproductive and need to be changed. For example, the additionality criteria attached to the deal actually create incentives to cut down rainforests, as only growing new forest is considered as bringing a genuine reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. 

He pointed out the Europe currently has a huge advantage in technology. "This is not just of moral importance but a business advantage as well," he concluded.

However, Olajos warned that a huge change in mindset for how Europe views forests and the fight against climate change is needed. He expressed his surpise at MEP Chris Davis's proposal in the climate package negotiations to give double credits for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.

"Forests are a five-hundred-million-year-old CCS technology. It's improved and working," he asked, wondering why the EU would want to fight climate change by excluding forests from emissions trading and giving more credits to coal-fired plants.

"That's the present level of our understanding of the problem," he lamented. "I will no doubt argue that we give maybe triple credits [to forests] but I have doubts about how much we can achieve."

To read the interview in full, please click here.