While the Climate Change pundits agree that energy efficiency and renewables are in the long term, «the most sustainable solutions both for
security of supply and climate,» they argue that «global greenhouse gas
emissions can not be
reduced by at least 50 %
by 2050, as they need to be, if we do not also use other options such as
carbon capture and storage.»
But the good news for tropical forests was tempered
by developments including Indonesia announcing its intentions to open up more than 2 million hectares of
carbon - dense peatlands to old palm development; the collapse in law enforcement in Madagascar, contributing to an explosion of commercial timber (and lemur) harvesting in that country's spectacular rainforest parks; a breakdown at the RSPO meeting over efforts to
reduce greenhouse gas
emissions from palm oil production; violent conflict in Peru between government
security forces and indigenous groups over land rights and resource extraction; massive foreign land acquisitions in the Congo Basin; dodgy REDD dealings in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea; and large - scale expansion of oil palm agriculture in the Amazon.