Logging and sectoral targets to dominate UN talks

Deforestation and mechanisms for curbing emissions from heavy industries are expected to dominate the agenda at the latest round of UN climate negotiations, which kicked off in Accra, Ghana yesterday.

Speaking to more than 1,000 delegates at the opening of the week long conference, Ghananian president John Kufour warned Africa was already being impacted by "climate shocks".

He urged negotiators to start to deliver real progress ahead of the Copenhagen talks – which are scheduled for December next year and are expected to see the signing of an international deal to succeed the Kyoto Agreement – adding that "we need more than rhetoric to make progress in the next 12 to 18 months".

His comments were echoed by the UN's top climate change official, Yvo de Boer, who insisted the negotiations need to "speed up" if a draft deal is to be in place ahead of the Copenhagen talks.

However, observers predicted that the Ghana meeting will again be dominated by political wrangling over the two issues scheduled to be high on the agenda, integrating forestry into the global carbon market and setting carbon targets for different industries as well as countries.

The inclusion of forestry schemes in the UN's carbon markets was endorsed at last year's Bali conference, but negotiators are still divided on how best to implement such a scheme.

Advocates of the approach claim that allowing operators of forestry projects to sell carbon credits would provide countries with a financial incentive to tackle deforestation, which is estimated to account for a fifth of manmade carbon emissions each year.

Speaking to Associated Press, John Lanchbery of Birdlife International expressed optimism that progress towards a deal on forestry could be made.

"There has been no single country that has spoken against [an agreement in general]", he said. "They would like to see it implemented in different ways. But nobody has tried to kill the proposal off. Everyone wants it to happen."

However, a coalition of environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth International and the Rainforest Foundation, have expressed concerns over attempts to create a market based on forestry projects, predicting that without strict safeguards such a move could see indigenous forest communities driven off their land. They have also voiced fears that such a scheme could see the global carbon market flooded with new credits, driving down the price and undermining the financial pressure on firms operating within trading schemes to cut emissions.

Negotiators from some countries including the US are also known to object to measures that they argue would see countries with large areas of rainforest financially rewarded for simply stopping logging that is often illegal in the first place.

A row is also brewing over Japanese proposals for a "sectoral approach" to carbon emission caps that would see targets set for carbon intensive sectors such as steel, aluminium and energy generation.

Supporters of the proposals claim it would be easier to manage down emissions by focusing on a few of the most polluting industries rather than whole national economies. However, developing nations in particular have voiced opposition to the proposals, fearing that the imposition of strict carbon targets on their heavy industries could be used by developed economies to justify trade barriers.

"We feel extremely uncomfortable with the kind of sectoral approaches that are being discussed," Indian delegate Ajay Mathur told Reuters.

However, Japanese officials sought to downplay the concerns, insisting that any sectoral carbon targets would vary from country-to-country based on the maturity of their industrial sectors.