Protecting forests at Bali summit critical: Branson, Nobel laureate
LONDON (AFP) — Protecting tropical forests around the world would be the breakthrough that could best help combat climate change, billionaire businessman Richard Branson and Nobel peace laureate Wangari Maathai wrote in a comment piece published Monday.
Branson and Maathai's comments come on the day a major UN-sponsored climate change conference, bringing together 180 countries with experts and non-governmental organisations, opens in Bali.
Their comments were part of a Guardian op-ed article where several high-profile people from around the world, such as former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), suggested what they thought would be the single breakthrough most likely to aid the fight against global warming.
According to Branson, chairman of Virgin Group, whose businesses range from airlines to credit cards, the "most positive but realistic thing that governments could agree in Bali is to halt the cutting down of virgin tropical rainforests with immediate effect."
Branson also called for governments to "agree a method by which the major economies, big multinationals and other carbon offset groups could pay for it."
Similarly, Maathai, who won the 2004 Nobel Peace prize for her campaign to plant tens of millions of trees to counter tree-loss and desertification in Africa, wrote that "if a decision was made to protect the major forests of the world ... that would make all the difference for our planet."
Annan, meanwhile, said funding to help countries adapt to climate change and mitigate its effects "must be a part of any serious solution to the climate change predicament we face."
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, which won the 2007 Nobel peace prize, recommended "radical changes in our transportation habits", saying "each individual must set as a goal actions to promote low carbon-dioxide emissions from transportation that he or she is responsible for."
