Forests, Kyoto and Climate

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Abstract
Global warming is a reality which was acknowledged by governments at the Rio Summit in 1992 and at Kyoto in 1997. Tropical deforestation is emitting CO2 to the atmosphere, and a similar amount of CO2 is being removed from the atmosphere by the growth of forests elsewhere in the world, plus the acceleration of plant growth by increasing CO2 and N supply. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) considered it possible to increase afforestation to offset 7.5% of the carbon that is likely to be emitted by burning fossil fuels up to 2050. Individual countries are claiming forest carbon sinks to offset some of their requirement to cut fossil fuel emissions. Also, some companies are starting independent carbon offset projects. The negotiators at Kyoto agreed very limited carbon sink credits in ‘Kyoto forests’ which must have been created since 1990. However, there are problems with estimation, definition, verification and associated unintended or undesirable effects, which are currently being examined by the IPCC.