19
Nov 2008 - The UK Government should begin
to raise the billions of Euros it needs
to tackle climate change by setting aside
revenues gained from the first UK auction
of pollution credits, being held today,
according to a new joint paper released
by WWF and Oxfam.
The 4 million pollution
allowances being sold today under the EU
Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) could raise
funds in the region of €74 million, according
to the agencies. Between now and 2012, the
UK could raise about €1.6billion of revenue
from the scheme. From 2013, income is set
to grow substantially to around €6 billion
per year in the UK alone and across the
EU as a whole, between €50-75 billion per
year could be generated by 2020.
WWF and Oxfam believe
this money should be used to build a safe
and secure low-carbon economy at home and
across the developing world and to help
poor communities to adapt to climate change
that is already happening. However the UK
has joined other European governments in
resisting proposals from MEPs to use funds
raised through the ETS for action to tackle
climate change because of concerns they
breach budgetary principlees about earmarking.
“The Stern review showed
that tackling climate change makes huge
economic sense - but this battle can't be
won if we don't find the money to invest
in solutions and kick start new green industries,”
said Keith Allott, Head of Climate Change
at WWF-UK.
“The new and substantial
revenues from the ETS auctions could go
a long way to plug this gap, so it is frustrating
that the UK Government is one of the main
opponents to the idea of using the money
this way, arguing technical problems with
earmarking revenues. It also begs the question
of what alternatives the Government proposes
in order to fund the transition to a climate-safe
future.”
Phil Bloomer, Oxfam
Campaigns and Policy Director, said: “Millions
of poor people across the globe are already
suffering as a result of climate change,
as victims of natural disasters and changing
weather patterns that wreck crops and force
them to travel further for water. The billions
raised from polluters must be invested both
to prevent future climate change and to
help poor people adapt to change already
upon them through projects such as early
flood warning and irrigation systems.
“The UK Government should
grasp the chance to lead the world in tackling
climate change. Disputes about where money
comes from should not get in the way of
providing the scale of investment necessary
to protect poor people from the climate
change of our creation.”
Until the end of phase
two of the scheme in 2012, most of the pollution
permits in the EU ETS will still be handed
out for free. This has allowed the power
sector to generate huge windfall profits
- with the UK power sector alone set to
reap a potential €15 billion by the end
of 2012. WWF and Oxfam believe that from
2013 it is absolutely vital that the power
sector should be obliged to buy permits
at auction forcing it to pay in full for
its pollution costs.
The Government should
make a strong commitment now to spend this
new stream of revenue generated from companies
paying for the costs of their pollution
on measures to tackle climate change and
on building a safe and secure low carbon
economy both at home and across the developing
world.
At the least, it should
announce an equivalent minimum level of
spend. At a critical time for the international
climate negotiations, this would send an
important signal to the EU and the rest
of the world, illustrating just how seriously
the UK takes the need to take action against
climate change.
Jo Sargent, WWF-UK
Jon Slater, Oxfam
+ More
FSC still the best
18 Nov 2008 - WWF believes
that responsible forest management is necessary
for the maintenance of biodiversity and
ecosystems services, both on individual
sites and within the wider landscape. WWF
sees credible forest certification as an
important tool to promote responsible forest
management and purchasing of forest products
from well-managed forests. In collaboration
with the World Bank, WWF has developed the
Forest Certification Assessment Guide (FCAG),
to assess the quality and credibility of
certification schemes.
In order to review WWF’s
position on credible certification schemes,
WWF commissioned an assessment using the
FCAG to assess the two global certification
systems: the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)
and PEFC (Program for Endorsement of Certification
Systems). The assessment focused on the
rules set by these systems internationally,
supplemented by an assessment of a sample
of national FSC and PEFC standards/schemes,
i.e. in Germany, Australia and Chile, with
respect to elements that could not be assessed
at an international level.
The assessment showed
that few changes have been implemented at
the international level in either of the
two schemes since the last WWF assessment
in 2005.
Based on this latest
FCAG assessment as well as other previous
assessments, it can be concluded that while
there is room for improvement in both systems,
FSC still best meets WWF's core requirements,
namely for:
driving significant
improvements in forest management on the
ground;
meeting as a minimum WWF's core values on
meaningful and equitable participation of
all major stakeholder groups, reliable and
independent assessment, certification decisions
free of conflicts of interest, transparency
in decision making and reporting; and
delivering consistency across countries.
The conclusion is predominantly based on
the following studies:
An analysis of the FSC
and PEFC Systems for Forest Management Certification,
using the Forest Certification Assessment
Guide (FCAG), Walter, October 2008;
An analysis of Corrective Action Requests
(CAR) of FSC and PEFC across six countries
in Europe, Hirschberger, 2005;
The Global Impacts of SmartWood Certification,
Newsom & Hewitt, 2005.
Forest Certification Credibility Assessment
in Indonesia Applying the Forest Certification
Assessment Guide on National Level, Hinrichs
& Prasetyo, 2007.
WWF will continue to actively focus its
efforts on improving the FSC system, and
on promoting the FSC logo as an internationally
recognized hallmark of responsible forest
management. WWF also acknowledges that both
FSC and PEFC need improvements. FSC needs
to improve in its approach to interim standards,
while PEFC needs to improve across a range
of issues, in particular on transparency
of decision-making and reporting, balanced
and equitable stakeholder participation
as well as its ability to demonstrate improvements
on the ground. PEFC also needs to develop
a consistent approach across countries.
While some national PEFC schemes were better
in performance than others, the common use
of the PEFC logo does not allow buyers to
differentiate between them.
Margareta Renstrom
WWF International
