key to Kyoto II

What the new Protocol will mean for deforestation and carbon trading

Back in December last year, the United Nations hosted a conference in Bali, Indonesia, to begin designing the framework that will replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012. While the conference does not seem to have been a wholesale success, and the delegates did not agree on all aspects, there was a general consensus that Kyoto's replacement would require mechanisms to slow tropical deforestation. Carbon trading might be used to place a value on the carbon that is already locked up in tropical rainforests, so they are worth more if they are left standing. However, it is importan...