Joint implementation: Biodiversity and greenhouse gas offsets
- Wisconsin Electric Power Company, Milwaukee, WI (United States)
One of the most pressing environmental issues today is the possibility that projected increases in global emissions of greenhouse gases form increased deforestation, development, and fossil-fuel combustion could significantly alter global climate patterns. Under the terms of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed in Rio de janeiro during the June 19923 Earth Summit, the United States and other industrialized countries committed to balancing greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels in the year 2000. Included in the treaty is a provision titled {open_quotes}Joint Implementation,{close_quotes} whereby industrialized countries assist developing countries in jointly modifying long-term emission trends, either through emission reductions or by protecting and enhancing greenhouse gas sinks (carbon sequestration). The US Climate Action Plan, signed by President Clinton in 1993, calls for voluntary climate change mitigation measures by various sectors, and the action plan included a new program, the US Initiative on Joint Implementation. Wisconsin Electric decided to invest in a JI project because its concept encourages creative, cost-effective solutions to environmental problems through partnering, international cooperation, and innovation. The project chosen, a forest preservation and management effort in Belize, will sequester more than five million tons of carbon dioxide over a 40-year period, will become economically self-sustaining after ten years, and will have substantial biodiversity benefits. 6 refs., 1 tab.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 420430
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960329-; ISSN 0364-152X; TRN: 96:006484-0011
- Journal Information:
- Environmental Management, Vol. 20, Issue 6; Conference: Managing for biodiversity: emerging ideas for the electric utility industry conference, Williamsburg, VA (United States), 19-20 Mar 1996; Other Information: PBD: Nov-Dec 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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