None The Nature Conservancy in California Press Releases Search All Press Releases Vanessa Martin Phone: (916) 402-2810 Email: vmartin@tnc.org

Convergence of World Leaders Marks Turning Point in Fight against Climate Change

Conservancy to lead talks on the critical role of nature in addressing climate change at historic summit

Los Angeles, CA — November 12, 2008 — California Program Executive Director Mike Sweeney will represent The Nature Conservancy in a historic summit organized by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that will — for the first time — bring together governors from across the U.S. and leaders from Brazil, Indonesia, China and other developing countries to establish a process to lower the world’s carbon emissions and fight climate change.

During the summit, held on November 18 and 19, these leaders are expected to sign several agreements to protect tropical forests and lower the carbon emissions produced by deforestation around the world. The Nature Conservancy will be joining the summit to highlight the critical role forests play in the fight against climate change.

“Destruction of the world’s forests is the second leading contributor to climate change, producing about 20 percent of all carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere each year — more than is produced by all the automobiles, planes and trains on Earth,” said Sweeney. “If we are to survive the impacts of climate change, we must address deforestation on a global scale.”

For more than a decade, The Nature Conservancy has been a leader in demonstrating the importance of forests as a critical component in any climate change solution and was a key stakeholder in the creation of California’s landmark climate change plan. As a result, California is poised to adopt the first economy-wide cap and trade program, one that would include trading in credits from forest carbon projects both within the U.S. and abroad, serving as a model for other global leaders to follow.

And with 23 specific forest climate change projects across the globe, including projects in California, Indonesia, Brazil and China, the Conservancy has used innovative science and on-the-ground models to demonstrate how both people and nature can adapt, survive and thrive in a changing climate.

The summit also kicks off a one-year countdown to the final United Nations (UN) climate negotiations that will be held in Copenhagen in 2009, when world leaders will approve a post-Kyoto climate accord. At the close of the November summit, leaders will jointly set forth a roadmap to Copenhagen, which the UN will begin negotiating at a December meeting in Poland.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. The Conservancy and its more than 1 million members have protected nearly 120 million acres worldwide. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.