18_july_bonn2

Thursday, 19 July 2001

treetanic awards for trying to sink kyoto

global forest coalition to show Bonn delegates the difference between a sink and a tree

This year's nominees for the Treetanic Award include:

• David Anderson, CEO of the Canadian Timber Industry (and occasionally Environment Minister)
• Junichiro Koizumi, CEO of Corporate Japan (and, when time allows, Prime Minister)
• Bob Hill, CEO of the Australian Eucalyptus Industry (and sometimes Environment Minister)
• Pete Hodson, CEO of the New Zealand Sheep Industry (and intermittently Environment Minister).

Australia, Japan and New Zealand, none of which have yet promised to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, want to include large-scale tree plantations and other sinks projects in the Clean Development Mechanism. They are also pushing hard to include a broad range of activities under article 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol, which allows countries to meet Kyoto targets through activities such as plantation establishment instead of cutting their CO2 emissions.

Simone Lovera of Friends of the Earth International comments:

"The Governments of Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand are still trying to hold the Kyoto Protocol to ransom. They want to avoid action at home to cut greenhouse gas emissions. To do this they are trying to saddle the planet will millions of acres of environmentally destructive monoculture plantations. It seems that some senior politicians in these countries have trouble distinguishing between a sink and a tree. We hope that our award and our action tomorrow will help teach them the difference."