How to Save Our Rainforests? By Giving them a $$$ Value

Time Magazine's Bryan Walsh speaks on the push to protect rainforests - the lungs of our earth - by giving companies carbon credits for saving them. See below for Bryan's verbatim answer. http://www.eco-rescue.com LOS ANGELES, California, October 2, 2009 (ENS) - At the invitation of Governor Schwarzenegger's Global Climate Summit, 30 governors, premiers, mayors and senior officials from around the world and the United Nations declared that workable solutions to global warming exist and they want a strong climate deal to emerge from negotiations in Copenhagen this December.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who convened this second annual summit of subnational leaders, said, "Addressing the problems caused by climate change is the greatest environmental challenge of our time."

"We have deepened our partnerships and renewed our commitment to work collaboratively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create a cleaner planet and stronger economy for the next generation. In signing this declaration we are sending a powerful message to the national leaders negotiating the next global climate agreement that we are ready for action," said Schwarzenegger. "The time to act is now."
The participants agreed to work together to pursue clean transportation and mobility, support national climate change legislation, include forests in climate policy development, acknowledge the need for adaptation efforts, and recognize the role of subnational governments in the discussions on the next global climate agreement.
In December 2009, world leaders are expected to meet in Copenhagen and agree on a treaty to limit greenhouse gases that will take over when the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2102.
Bryan Walsh: 59 there is a real push to make forests, because they actually absorb carbon and are carbon themselves, make them a value you could trade in the carbon market. So for instance, what's I think is going on in Aceh Indonesia, and say you have a company like Bank of America for instance. 19:14 wants to get carbon credits. they also want to look green. And so they will pay so the Indonesian government, really the Aceh state government, X amount of money to protect and keep protecting in perpetuity, a certain part of the forest. And that, they will get carbon credits out of that because that forest is absorbing you know how much every much carbon a year. So now they will be able to take those carbon credits and bank them, or trade them, and so forth. 19:39 right now this is very much in its early stages. The rules for this kind of trading have not been worked out. But it is incredibly important. 19:46 Deforestation is such a huge part of our overall carbon emissions that if we cant figure out a way with cap and trade system and a common market system to include that, to incentivize the protection of the forest, then we are missing out a huge part of the entire problem, so what they are doing is incredibly important and that's what I would tell them."

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