Australia pledges A$200 million to reforestation program

The Jakarta Post

CANBERRA, Australia (AP): Australia on Thursday pledged 200 million Australian dollars (US$161 million) to protect and replenish Asian forests - a move Prime Minister John Howard said would do more to combat climate change than the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

The fund, which will be spent over the next five years, will aim to halve the rate of deforestation in southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia, by planting new trees, fighting illegal logging, delivering education about forest management and supporting industries that provide an alternative to timber production.

Britain, Germany and the United States will also join the fund, which will be managed by the World Bank.

Howard said 20 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to the destruction of forests, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Deforestation ranks second behind electricity production as a key cause of the world's carbon dioxide levels, he said.

"What this initiative will do, in a shorter period of time, is make a greater contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions than, in fact the Kyoto Protocol," Howard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

One of the world's largest per capita producers of greenhouse gas, Australia has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which calls for steep cuts in carbon dioxide emissions among industrialized nations.

Howard, siding with U.S. President George W. Bush, who has also refused to join the treaty, says the treaty would disadvantage Australia's coal-driven economy by placing caps on its emissions while allowing energy hungry developing countries like China and India to pollute freely.

But opinion polls show Australian voters are increasingly worried about global warming in the lead up to federal elections later this year.

A longtime skeptic on climate change, Howard has been softening his stance on the issue.

Last month, the prime minister said Australia should put a price on carbon emissions, saying market mechanisms would be integral to any long-term response to climate change. The announcement was a reversal of Howard's previous stance that any moves to cap or price carbon dioxide emissions would effectively be a "carbon tax" that would cripple Australia's coal industry and slow the economy.