An historic summit of state and provincial governors from around the world convened this week in California to advance national and worldwide efforts to fight climate change — and The Nature Conservancy played a key role in the summit's success.

The summit's importance was underscored by an address from President-elect Barack Obama, who said that "once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again ... lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change." Obama added: "Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option."

At the summit, The Conservancy highlighted the critical role forests play in the fight against climate change and shared our expertise in designing forest projects that provide real, scientifically valid and certified carbon credits.

“By engaging developing countries through this summit on projects to reduce emissions from forest destruction, we not only increase the likelihood that the United States will get on board with future agreements, we also reduce emissions while protecting both wildlife and forest livelihoods," said Mike Sweeney, California State Director.

Summit Draws on The Conservancy's Experience

During the summit, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle signed memorandums of understanding with leaders from Indonesia and Brazil to explore launching cooperative projects to fight climate change and implementing the world's first state-to-state, sub-national climate policy that focuses on reducing emissions from deforestation from developing countries.

The summit is one of a number of high-level international discussions building toward a December 2009 international agreement on climate change. World leaders will gather in Poland next month to continue work toward this new agreement.

The Conservancy has been a pioneer in creating forest carbon projects in California. We have worked closely with state regulators to craft stringent standards for forest carbon credits based on our years of experience.

For instance, the Conservancy’s Garcia River project is one of the first and largest sustainable timber management projects to be independently certified under these standards.

The Conservancy also led a coalition of environmental organizations that worked closely with the Governor’s administration to expand the scope of state climate change legislation to include international carbon trading.

Climate Change Projects that Make a Difference

The Nature Conservancy strongly believes that any meaningful solution to climate change must reduce emissions from forest destruction, particularly in tropical forests.

But while the destruction of forests causes more emission than the entire global transportation sector, reducing emissions from deforestation is virtually ignored in the Kyoto protocol and other climate legislation.

That's why we are working with state, national and international governments to ensure that reducing emissions from deforestation is a key component off future climate change agreements. Great examples of our forest carbon projects include:

• A unique partnership in northeastern Bolivia, where the Conservancy is helping protect 1.5 million acres of Noel Kempff Mercado National Park.
• The Garcia River Forest on California's north coast, where the Conservancy is working to restore over 23,000 acres of forest.
• Berau, Indonesia, where we are collaborating with indigenous groups, government agencies, global businesses and other international NGOs to protect and improve the management of more than 2.4 million acres of forest.

These efforts are working to prove that forest restoration and conservation are viable vehicles to reduce emissions, protect ecosystems and enhance local communities.

”Valuing the carbon stored in forests gives developed and developing nations the opportunity to work together on reducing the emissions that cause climate change," says Sarene Marshall, director of the Conservancy’s Climate Change program.

“Combating climate change will require all the financial tools we have at our disposal. A market-oriented solution offers the greatest likelihood of generating the scale of investment needed to dramatically reduce global emissions from deforestation."

Building Beyond the Kyoto Protocol

The California Governors’ Climate Summit serves as a key milestone on “the road to Copenhagen” where world leaders will meet in December 2009 to complete the next major international agreement on climate change. This agreement will replace commitments made under the Kyoto Protocol, which will expire in 2012.

Next month, in Poznan, Poland, world leaders will meet at the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, the half-way point on the way to Copenhagen. Under the best circumstances, participants would hammer out a draft negotiating text in Poznan, which could be discussed and improved over the next year and agreed to next December in Copenhagen.

California’s summit sends a strong message to world leaders to continue their urgent work towards an international agreement and create a global framework for climate change action at all scales.

It also signals the new Obama administration and the U.S. Congress to move quickly on domestic legislation so they can engage and contribute effectively to international discussions in 2009.

Nature Conservancy staff and scientists will play an integral role in December’s COP 14 meetings, and in the months leading up to Copenhagen urging government officials around the world to adopt a climate change agreement that provides:

• Meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from all sources,
• Economic incentives to countries for reducing emissions from deforestation, and
• Preparation of natural areas and vulnerable communities for the inevitable consequences of a changing climate.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): © CJ Hudlow / TNC (Measuring forest health in Garcia River Forest); Photo © Mark Godfrey/TNC (Forest Canopy East Kalimantan, Indonesia); Photo © David Katz/Obama for America (Barack Obama)