Fourth Carbon Pro
Newsletter.
Contents
United Nation Climate Change
Conference in Bali
 The United Nations Climate Change Conference
2007 in Bali starts on Monday 3 December and will close on Friday 14
December 2007. The Conference is presided over by Indonesian
Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar, with support from the UN’s
Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC), headed by Executive Secretary
Yvo de Boer.
The first week will involve negotiations among the
Parties at the level of high-ranking government officials on a wide
range of issues. On Wednesday, 12 December, the high-level segment
will start with addresses by the UN Secretary-General and the
President of Indonesia. It is expected to be attended by 130
Environment Ministers.
The Conference brings together representatives of over 180
countries with observers from intergovernmental and nongovernmental
organizations and the media. The two weeks period includes the
sessions of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC, its
subsidiary bodies as well as the Meeting of the Parties of the Kyoto
Protocol. A ministerial segment in the second week will conclude the
Conference.
Indonesian Environment Minister and COP 13
President,
Mr. Rachmat Witoelar, addressing the opening session
of the conference (font: unfccc.int)
The main goal of the Bali Conference is to get negotiations going
on a new international climate change agreement. The Bali Conference
will not deliver a fully negotiated and agreed climate deal but is
aimed to set the necessary wheels in motion. Parties need to agree
on the key areas which the new climate agreement should cover,
including mitigation, avoided deforestation, adaptation, technology,
carbon markets and financing. They also need to agree on when the
talks and negotiations will conclude so that the new climate change
deal can be ratified by national governments before the end of 2012.
Furthermore, countries should decide on the organisational and
procedural arrangements to get to this result.
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Kyoto Protocol Ratification by
Australia
Mr. Kevin Rudd says Australia
needs a practical
plan of action
to deal with global warming
On 3rd December 2007 the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd,
signed the ratification of Kyoto Protocol.
"This is the first official act of the new Australian Government,
demonstrating my Government's commitment to tackling climate
change," Mr Rudd said in a statement.
Under United Nations
guidelines, ratification comes into force 90 days after the
instrument of ratification is received by the UN, making Australia a
full member of the Kyoto Protocol by the end of March 2008.
"Australia's official declaration today that we will become a
member of the Kyoto Protocol is a significant step forward in our
country's efforts to fight climate change domestically - and with
the international community," Mr Rudd said.
He said the Federal
Government would do everything in its power to help Australia meet
its Kyoto obligations, including setting a target to reduce
emissions by 60 per cent on 2000 levels by 2050.
It also would
establish a national emissions trading scheme by 2010 and set a 20
per cent target for renewable energy by 2020.
"I will also lead
the Australian delegation at the opening of the high level segment
of the United Nations conference on climate change in Bali," Mr Rudd
said.
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New signature of Ljubljana
Agreement
Mr. Radivoje Bratic, Ministry of agriculture,
forestry and water management
of Republic of Srpska signing
Carbon-Pro Agreement.
On 29th November, in Banja Luka Radivoje Bratic, Ministry of
agriculture, forestry and water management of Republic of Srpska,
signed the Carbon-Pro Agreement.
The first signature of the
Agreement was held in Ljubljana during the Transnational Conference
of Carbon-Pro between some institutional delegates from Italy,
Croatia and Greece.
The Agreement, which recognises carbon
credits as a temporary but important measure to reduce the emissions
of greenhouse gas at a local, national and European level, has now
been signed by 7 regional and local institutional representatives of
Carbon-Pro partnership.
For more information about the Agreement
read the text below.
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Carbon Pro Ljubljana
Conference
Last 19th October has been held in Ljubljana the Transnational
Conference LOCAL STRATEGIES FOR LAND USE MANAGEMENT ACCORDING TO
KYOTO PROTOCOL - Exploring new management tools for CO2
sequestration in agricultural lands and forests, organised within
Carbon-Pro project.
The Conference of Ljubljana has been the final phase of the
project Carbon-Pro. The project was oriented to supply public
authorities responsible for land planning with useful and easily
suitable tools for transferring the relevant concepts of the Kyoto
Protocol and carbon sequestration into local and regional planning
strategies.
The method proposed is based on concrete experiences
of land management applied into CADSES area, and models adopted
should easily be transferred to other European territories (and not
only) everywhere public authorities promote strategies for carbon
sequestration.
Mr.
Stephan Schoeps, CADSES Joint Technical Secretariat
The meeting started with the welcome addressess from the hosting
authorities, by Andrej Kranjc, Secretary of Climate Security Office
and Focal Point for UNFCCC for Slovenia.
After this there was a
general overview of CADSES programme and opportunities by Letterio
Denaro from the CADSES Managing Authority and by Stephan Schoeps
from the Joint Technical Secretariat. Mr Schoeps in his speech
underlined that Carbon-Pro is the first Interreg Project concluded
within the 4th call for proposals.
The following speech was held by Aleksander Golob, from Slovenian
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food, discussing some
scenarios of the impact of forest policy on the carbon cycle
on the example of Slovenia. He analysed the assessment of
forest-related carbon distribution in Slovenia and the importance of
forest sector for carbon balance.
Mr.
Aleksander Golob, Slovenian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Food
Furthermore some presentations of Carbon pro project followed:
Emilio Gottardo, from the Italian region Friuli Venezia Giulia,
Carbon-Pro Lead Partner, showed the activities and the results of
the project; Bernhard Felbermeier frome the Technical university of
Munich presented the Transnational Guidelines on models for carbon
balance; Alessandro Peressotti from University of Udine illustrated
the capabilities of the agricultural and forest systems in
intervening as sink of carbon as studied during Carbon-Pro and
finally Giulio Volpi from the project Technical Secretariat
described the Carbon Pro Transnational Action Plan for the
management of agricultural and forestry resources, a tool targeted
to decision makers and local authorities.
In the last part of the meeting the topic of the discussion were
the environmental strategies and local political scenarios,
illustrated by the institutional representatives from Italy, Croatia
and Greece.
It is possible to download all the meeting presentation in Carbon Pro
website.
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Carbon Pro
Agreement
The signature of the Agreement by Nikolaos
Papayianopoulos, Vice
mayor for the environment and green of
Municipality of Thessaloniki
During the Ljubljana conference it has been signed the
Agreement aimed to recognise carbon credits as a
measure to mitigate the emissions of greenhouse gas at a local,
national and European level.
The Agreement was signed between the
Ministry for Environmental policies of Veneto Region, a delegate of
the Regional Minister for Agricultural, Natural and Forest Resources
and for Mountain of Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the
Vice mayor for the environment and green of Municipality of
Thessaloniki (Greece), the Head of the City office for agriculture
and forestry of Municipality of Zagreb (Croatia), the County rulers
of Krapina Zagorje (Croatia) and of Zagrebačka County.
They
committed themselves to promote development of carbon credits
calculation as an opportunity to boost sustainable methods of land
management. The proposed strategy consists in stimulating the
creation of local markets where would be possible to sale carbon
credits, using a praxis that could influence the local economic
systems and promote sustainable development.
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