The latest round of United Nations negotiations for a climate change treaty wrapped up today in Bonn, Germany with both familiar drama highlighting the precarious state of international efforts to reach an agreement to curb climate change, and some behind-the-scenes progress on technical issues.

The latest UN climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany ended with the now-familiar political drama among countries and some quieter progress on technical issues. (Photo thanks and credit to Flickr user UNclimatechange)

The Bonn negotiations marked the first set of negotiations since December's conference in Durban, South Africa laid the groundwork for developed and developing countries to move forward on a new framework engaging all nations.

During the two-week meeting, countries launched three years of negotiations to develop the new agreement by 2015. Progress on this "Durban Platform" negotiating track and other substantive issues was impeded by a lengthy impasse in agreeing to an agenda for discussion and selecting a Chairperson to run the negotiations.

However, countries did not seem to fall into the typical divide between developed-vs.-developing country, but rather split between nations determined to move forward versus those that weren't — with developing countries on both sides of the debate.

Jennifer Haverkamp, EDF's International Climate Program Director said:

Update (May 14): President Dilma Rousseff has until Friday, May 25 to either sign the bill or veto some or all of it.

Leading environmental law experts this week issued a paper detailing why President Dilma Rousseff should veto the law (1876/99) passed by Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies last week that would replace the country’s core forest protection legislation, the Forest Code. (View English translation of the paper.) The attorneys' paper follows a late-April statement from some of Brazil's top scientific organizations also repudiating the legislation.

A protester in Brazil marches with a sign calling for Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to "veta," or veto, the Forest Code legislation. The legislation could reverse the major gains Brazil has made in reducing deforestation in the Amazon by opening up hundreds of millions of acres of forests to deforestation. Photo thanks and credit to Flickr user Stefanny Silva.

With the Rio+20 environment and development conference, hosted by Brazil, only weeks away, many in Brazilian government are concerned that weakening the Forest Code would draw international criticism.

In recent years, Brazil has made major gains in reducing Amazon deforestation, but the new law could reverse the trend.

The revised Forest Code, passed with support of the large ranchers and farmers’ caucus of the Congress (or ruralistas), would exempt farmers from penalties for illegal deforestation before 2008.

The legislation would also open up hundreds of millions of acres of currently protected forest to deforestation, including more than 98 million acres of critical wetlands, according to Brazil’s National Space Research Agency. President Rousseff has maintained since last year’s electoral campaign that she would not sign a law that gave amnesty for illegal deforestation.

The paper’s authors call for President Rousseff to veto the entire bill passed in the Chamber, rather than vetoing parts of it (she can choose to do either). Partial vetoes would introduce ambiguities and lacunae into the law and could make it unenforceable. For example, the Chamber bill changes the way that required forest buffers along streams and rivers are measured, allowing tens of millions of acres of new forest to be legally cleared. Vetoing this paragraph would leave undefined the key question of how riparian forest buffers are measured.

The new paper follows a statement by a working group of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC) and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC), the country’s two principal scientific organizations, repudiating the bill passed by the Chamber. The scientists argue that special interests pushed through changes detrimental to the national interest and will not provide a basis for environmentally sustainable growth of the agriculture sector.

President Rousseff should respect the wishes of the vast majority of the Brazilian public that wants an end to Amazon deforestation and veto this dangerous law in its entirety.

For more information:

• Brazil environmental groups' social media campaign and #VetaTudoDilma
• Press release (EDF): Brazil's President Rousseff should veto disastrous Forest Code
• Blog (EDF): Brazil's president and Congress could avoid backslide for Amazon protection

South Korea's new climate law will establish a cap-and-trade system covering about 60 percent of the country's greenhouse gas emissions.

South Korea today became the first country in Asia to pass climate change legislation that limits the country's carbon emissions, joining the host of countries around the world that also have passed climate laws. (Only weeks ago Mexico passed a climate bill that aims to increase renewable energy use, set ambitious goals to curb domestic emissions and establish a high-level climate commission authorized to create a domestic carbon market.)

The South Korean bill, approved today in a near-unanimous vote in Korea's National Assembly, establishes a cap-and-trade system for limiting the country’s growing carbon emissions. Specifically, the law:

• limits emissions from top polluters across the economy through a cap-and-trade system that is slated to start in 2015.
• covers about 60 percent of South Korea’s greenhouse gas emissions, which puts the government on track to fulfill its international pledge to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent from projected levels by 2020.
• allows Korea’s system eventually to link internationally with other emissions trading systems. The government and Australia have already announced plans to initiate such talks later this year.

Richie Ahuja, EDF’s Regional Director for Asia, said:

South Korea’s bold move is evidence that fast growing economies can put a limit on dangerous carbon emissions with broad support from elected leaders, and of the mounting desire and momentum to curb climate change across both the developed and developing world.

Such visionary actions by countries is how the global climate race will be won.

Cap-and-trade systems like Korea's have a successful track record of curbing carbon emissions. The cap-and-trade system for sulfur dioxide in the U.S. Clean Air Act, for example, reduced emissions faster and at lower cost than predicted. In Europe, the world's first and largest Emissions Trading System  has played a significant and successful role in reducing the EU's emissions.

Next for Korea, the Presidential Commission on Green Growth and related ministries will work on the final details of the law; those will be released in a Presidential Decree in the next few months.

EDF joined the chorus of Brazilian and global environmental groups in calling for Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff to veto the revisions of the country's main forest protection legislation passed last night by the House of Representatives that, if signed into law, would severely roll back environmental protection for the Amazon forest and other threatened ecosystems.

Brazil's Congress has sent President Dilma Rousseff the Forest Code, which would essentially legalize deforestation on vast areas of land. Rousseff can veto parts of or all of the law. (Photo credit to Flickr user dilmarousseff)

By giving amnesty for past illegal deforestation and opening up new land for deforestation, the Forest Code would essentially legalize deforestation on vast amounts of land.

This is a big problem, because global emissions from deforestation contribute about 15% of greenhouse gas emissions — as much as all the world’s cars, trucks, ships and airplanes combined – and Brazil is home to about 40% of the world's rain forests.

Brazil's relatively recent success in reducing deforestation in the Amazon has made it a global leader in reducing carbon emissions, but if President Rousseff approves the House-passed law, the country risks reversing that trend.

EDF’s Director of Tropical Forest Policy, Steve Schwartzman said Brazil's historic achievement in reducing deforestation in the Amazon nearly 80% since 2005 is at serious risk:

Brazil’s Forest Code has been instrumental in the country’s success in curbing carbon emissions, but President Rousseff is now faced with a deeply flawed, probably unenforceable law that would offer near-total amnesty for past illegal deforestation.

Brazilians overwhelmingly support stopping deforestation in the Amazon. About 85% of them want Amazon deforestation to stop no matter what, according to a public opinion poll taken in the last year.

Schwartzman said:

President Rousseff should respect the views of the vast majority of the Brazilian public that wants an end to Amazon deforestation and veto this bill.

Rousseff, from as far back as her presidential campaign, has repeatedly declared she would not accept legislation that amnesties past illegal deforestation. Brazilian law gives her as president the right to veto parts or all of the bill.

Given Brazil's position as host of June's global Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, and with the great importance of the Forest Code to the country's forests and the world's climate, all eyes are on President Rousseff's next move.

Mexico is one step closer to having a comprehensive law on climate change after its lower chamber passed the General Law on Climate Change late yesterday.

Mexico's house-passed General Law on Climate Change puts in place an important framework for emissions reductions from critical sectors and establishes key authorities and institutional structures. The bill now heads back to the Senate, which overwhelmingly passed an earlier version. (Photo thanks and credit to Mardan)

Now the bill’s final passage is in a race against time before the congressional session adjourns at the end of this month. In the next couple weeks, the bill has to clear its last two hurdles to become law: 1) passage by the Senate, which overwhelmingly passed an earlier version of the bill in December, and 2) signature by President Felipe Calderón.

A full analysis of the new bill, which passed 280-10 with one abstention, is still pending, but we highlight a few of the broader elements below.

Mexico’s General Law on Climate Change, as passed by the lower chamber:

• Reiterates in domestic law the country’s aspirational long-term greenhouse-gas emissions mitigation goals pledged under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to reduce its emissions 30% below business-as-usual emissions by 2020, and 50% below 2000 levels by 2050.
• Establishes a high-level climate change commission, a climate fund and mandatory emissions reporting and establishes a  national emissions registry. Also transforms the current National Institute of Ecology to the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change. (These provisions were also included in the previous Senate-passed bill.)
• Requests the Ministry of Finance and relevant energy ministries to develop a system of incentives by 2020 that favors the use of renewable energy. Establishes goals for increasing electricity generation from renewable sources, including an aspirational target of 35% of electricity generation to come from renewable sources by 2024.
• Enables, but does not mandate, the creation of a domestic greenhouse-gas emissions trading system.

Several analyses, including from the World Bank, indicate that across the economy Mexico already has available abundant low-cost, or even profitable, opportunities for reducing carbon emissions.

EDF’s own preliminary economic analysis shows a Mexican emissions trading system could both attract international investment and propel Mexico to achieve the country’s current carbon reduction goals at low cost, and possibly significant profit, if the system were to include an absolute carbon cap set near their current target and allow trading both domestically and in international markets.

Binding domestic targets are the strongest way for Mexico, or any country, to ensure it will meet its mitigation goals and maximize the full potential of future international carbon markets. This legislation doesn't go quite that far; however, it does put in place an important framework for emissions reductions from critical sectors; establish key authorities and institutional structures; and send a message to industries that would hopefully further incentivize future low-carbon development.

We are excited and optimistic about Mexico’s continued momentum to attack climate change at the national level. This legislation is a strong step in the right direction toward a healthier climate in Mexico and around the world. And with so many opportunities to benefit economically from taking strong action on climate change, we are hopeful that Mexico will realize this law's full potential and continue its record of climate leadership by further strengthening the rules in the future.

It’s official: U.S. airlines have given up their legal challenge to the European Union’s landmark law limiting global warming pollution from aviation.

Airlines have dropped a challenge in the UK High Court to the aviation directive three months after a ruling from the European Court of Justice, above, upheld the law. (Thanks and photo credit to Gwenaël Piaser)

It was an abrupt move by United, American, and their trade association, Airlines for America, none of which gave an explanation for dropping the case in the UK High Court in London less than 48 hours before the Court's scheduled hearing.

We can only guess that after the European Court of Justice's strong ruling  upholding the EU directive as consistent with international law, the airlines' lawyers realized their efforts in the UK court would be fruitless.

EDF, with the transatlantic coalition of environmental groups that intervened in the litigation, said today that the airlines' move presents an opportunity for industry to support a global deal to reduce emissions from aviation.

In a joint statement today from Aviation Environment Federation, Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, EDF, Transport & Environment, and WWF-UK, we said:

Although we are pleased this avoids a pointless legal challenge in the UK, it is disappointing that U.S airlines are refusing to accept the ECJ ruling, and may simply be moving the battlefield elsewhere. …

United States, Europe, and other countries [should] work together with airlines and civil society to craft a global solution and enforceable domestic measures.

U.S. House industry-dominated "roundtable discussion" ignores significant developments

In related news, today the U.S. House of Representatives aviation subcommittee hosted a “roundtable discussion” on the EU law and "its impact on the U.S. aviation industry, international law, and global trade.”

However, in the 1.5 hours when participants from the Federal Aviation Administration, State Department and aviation industry delivered short remarks and fielded questions from Members of Congress, the latest updates from the law were noticeably absent. No mention was made that just three months ago, the EU’s highest court had ruled strongly against the airlines, or that yesterday the airlines had given up their latest challenge to the law.

Eyes now turn to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), where its Secretary General Raymond Benjamin has proposed to agree, by the end of the year, on global measures to reduce aviation emissions. We hope airlines use this opportunity to support a global deal.

In the tropical forests of southern Mexico, demand for and growth of farmland and pasture for cattle ranching is driving deforestation.

Mexico's southernmost state of Chiapas, outlined above, is home to large tropical forests that are being lost to expansion of farmland and pasture for cattle ranching. (Google Maps)

Keeping forests alive is crucial to preventing climate change, because cutting and burning trees is a huge contributor to global warming pollution; as EDF's Mexico program coordinator, I've recently moved to the southernmost state of Chiapas to work with local organizations on reducing deforestation and benefiting local communities that own forests.

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, a lot can be done to improve the area's sustainable management of forests and develop better productive practices.

EDF has partnered with a local group in Mexico called AMBIO to support forest protection that can help reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation sufficiently — and in time — to avoid dangerous consequences of climate change.

EDF partners with AMBIO to help curb deforestation drivers

AMBIO has been working for 15 years with a growing number of rural communities on diverse projects to aid in rural development and curb climate change emissions.

Last year, we began partnering with the organization to support its pilot internship program, which placed students from the University of Chapingo, a top agriculture university near Mexico City, in a rural community for a few months to conduct projects to address the local drivers of deforestation.

I first met one of AMBIO’s interns, Maria Albina, when she gave an impressive presentation on the results of her internship project last spring, just when EDF had began its partnership with AMBIO.

AMBIO intern helps rural livestock producers

Maria is a young woman who grew up in a rural indigenous community in Chiapas, where she enjoyed helping her dad raise cows and sheep. She later attended the University of Chapingo, and secured her spot in AMBIO's pilot internship program last year when she was completing her engineering degree in agronomy (the science of soil management and crop production) with a specialty in animal husbandry.

AMBIO assigned her to work with the rural community of La Corona, which has been converting its forests to pasture lands to raise a small number of cattle. The environmental impact of cattle grazing can be significant, but improvements in the efficiency and production on smaller parcels of land that has already been deforested can help dramatically.

As an AMBIO intern last year, Maria Albina lived in the small rural community of La Corona for nearly four months, working to improve health and productivity of cattle to reduce deforestation from pasture expansion. Above, Maria administers a vaccination to one of the community's cattle.

For the nearly four months, Maria lived in La Corona, she worked with ranchers to improve their cattle management techniques to allow for healthier and more productive cattle to graze in the existing pasture and reduce the need to further deforest to expand the pasture areas.

The AMBIO internship, Maria says, provided the opportunity she was looking for to determine she could transfer some of the knowledge and skills she had gained in college to rural, small-scale livestock producers in Chiapas.

Maria had been the only woman in the AMBIO pilot program, but this year already promises to be different, with more female than male students applying to the program and being placed in communities.

Last week I caught up with Maria in San Cristobal de las Casas, a beautiful colonial city in Chiapas where she now lives and is working with AMBIO on a climate adaptation project that is focused in improving pasture and forest management in a region with a harsh dry season.

Below is a translated selection of our conversation about Maria’s work with rural, indigenous Chiapas communities, her experience at La Corona and her new AMBIO project.

Read more about out work with AMBIO in our post Mexico organization partners with EDF to address deforestation, climate change and rural development.

Interview with former AMBIO intern and University of Chapingo graduate Maria Albina:

EDF's Danae Azuara Santiago, Mexico program coordinator: What led you to choose AMBIO’s internship and working with communities instead of the more traditional option of going to a commercial ranch?

Maria (left) grew up in a rural, indigenous Chiapas village and earned her agronomy engineering degree from one of Mexico's top agriculture universities. She met with me last week to discuss her internship with AMBIO.

Maria Albina, former AMBIO intern: There were different options to consider.

I knew in a ranch I would get more experience in mastering different techniques, since they have a lot of animals.

But since I grew up in a small Zoque community with lots of needs, I wanted to go back to work with rural and indigenous communities.

I wanted to test myself to see if I have what it takes to connect with people.

In rural areas you need to talk to cattle producers in a different way; I wanted to measure my abilities to transfer my knowledge.

EDF: What was your experience in college – is livestock husbandry a field with mostly male students?

Maria: Within animal husbandry, it is quite even now in relation to numbers of men and women when we start; a few years ago it was almost only men. In my cohort of 80, about 30 graduates were women. It is still seen as a profession for men, but in school there are no differences. We are treated the same, though in the work environment there are mostly men.

EDF: Tell us about the project you were working on. What were the challenges in the community were before you arrived?

The goal of Maria's internship was, in her words, to "attack the causes of deforestation." The map above shows the deforestation in the region, and how much forest is still left to preserve around La Corona (red dot, bottom right). The community is also near an important Protected Natural Area (yellow dot, upper left). (Google Maps)

Maria: People from AMBIO noticed that some cattle were underweight and eating too much tree bark, and that shows that there might be some deficiencies in their nutrition.

People in that region have a lot of areas for pasture, few cattle, and they keep taking down forest to have more areas for pasture.

So the idea was for me to help them with their pasture management.

I thought I would be able to teach them how to rotate pasture areas, but there is a lot of work to do — first, to raise awareness and provide a lot of information, so they can then learn how to have more animals in less space.

This was a first effort to generate interest with them.

EDF: Is cattle raising a good source of income in the region?

Maria: That’s how they see it; the rancher that has most cattle has 25 to 30 cows, so he produces at most 30 calves per year. For a family, that can be a lot. Even with the poor management they give their animals, it still provides them income.

EDF: What goals were you, AMBIO and the community hoping you would accomplish?

Maria: Basically to strengthen capacity for cattle management, and since AMBIO has an environmental focus, the goal is to attack causes of deforestation in the region. We need to improve [from an environmental perspective] what is the major source of income for some of these families. I wanted them to be better capable of managing their grasslands, and for them to provide better nutrition to their cattle.

EDF: What did you do? 

Maria: I carried out workshops and field practices; I would accompany people in their daily activities in their production systems, and helped them out in their needs. I vaccinated chickens and cows, helped them herd their livestock, bathed them to take ticks off, all sorts of things. I offered to support people in what they needed.

EDF: You worked specifically with livestock – how did that fit into reducing drivers of deforestation, and what made that work “environmental”?  

"There is no need to cut down more forest to increase their production of cattle, meat and milk" if ranchers improve their cattle's nutrition and the management of grasslands that cattle graze on, Maria said. (Photo credit and thanks to Flickr user anthrotect)

Maria: The type of livestock management that is practiced in Marques de Comillas, and generally in Chiapas, is extensive. The animals roam around in large areas; there are few animals in very large enclosures.

So, if we improve the management of grasslands and the cattle's nutrition through simple techniques, there will be less need to cut down more forest to keep raising cattle, and I think we could even reduce the area of pastures, increase production of livestock and let some pastures recover as forests.

If people are economically stable and have no pressing needs, it will be easier for them to also work on conserving forests.

In their community territorial-use plans, they already have planned to increase their areas of pasture, but there is no need to cut down more forest to increase their production of cattle, meat and milk.

EDF: How good of a learning experience was it? What did you get out of it? What kind of impact do you think you had in the community?

Maria: It was the experience I wanted, being in a rural community, to see if I could communicate with local producers. It’s not how I imagined things – I thought people would have more interest in what I could teach them. They do want to learn more, but they want to see things in practice, not just theory, and that takes time and more resources. This experience did meet my personal goal, and I hope future internships in the area keep building this capacity.

EDF: What challenges did you face being a woman working in rural communities?

"People knew an intern was coming, and they thought it a bit strange when they found out it was me, a small woman," Maria, who's under 5 feet tall, told me. "When they take you to the field, they treat you as though you are delicate, they question if you will be able to keep up with them walking, the sun, carrying out your stuff, and they assume there is a lot you don’t know."

Maria: There were diverse challenges. With some people I had a great connection, maybe because I was a woman; with others, not. I offered to help anyone who wanted it, but many times they would not call me. I think women are seen as weaker, more fragile for hard work. …

There was this man who had problems with one of his cows during delivery, and he did not call me. He cut the cow open and saved the calf, but the cow died.

I could have helped him with both. I think maybe there is lack of knowledge of what an agronomist specialized in husbandry can do; maybe if I had been a vet he would have called me. Maybe it was because I’m a woman; I felt some people doubted my capacities so “why take the risk.”

It takes longer to build trust when you are a woman.

Also, people don’t see men staying home to help out in other things, but they expect that from a woman. If I had been out all the time talking to ranchers and offering to help them, I might be perceived as a “pata de perro” (dog’s leg) — always out of the home instead of helping the other women. ….

I got to meet almost everyone at the community. Some would call me the “little engineer.”   People knew an intern was coming, and they thought it a bit strange when they found out it was me, a small woman (under 5 feet tall). When they take you to the field, they treat you as though you are delicate, they question if you will be able to keep up with them walking, the sun, carrying out your stuff, and they assume there is a lot you don’t know.

EDF: Beside the capacities you helped build with cattle management, do you think you left more to the community by being there, being a woman?

Maria: Sometimes I felt like a psychologist, providing counsel to young people, many who had dropped their studies. Youngsters trusted me to talk with them, and I made a lot of friendships. I’m still in touch with people there after almost a year. …

I would tell some that there are a lot of things they could do with their lives, to go out of the community, about so many options, find happiness in further development. I told some of the women there’s no need to depend on their parents, that they could do it on their own.

EDF: Were there women in representation or leadership roles?

Maria: Yes. Not as authorities for the community, but for other things, for the school and the health center.

EDF: What are you doing now with AMBIO?

Maria: After I finished my internship, I went back to Chapingo, graduated, finished my thesis and I did my dissertation exam last October.

After AMBIO's pilot internship program ended, representatives from communities that hosted an intern (like La Corona) met with communities interested in hosting an intern in the future and EDF to discuss successes of the pilot program and how it could be improved in the next round.

AMBIO got funding for three small projects from Proac (Climate Change Adaptation Program) and they needed someone to help them with grassland management under a “forest grazing scheme”, and they thought of me. And now, here I am again working in this project for a few months.

We are promoting the use of grasses that are cut, kept in silos and conserved to feed the cattle during the dry season. We are also planting trees with high protein content for livestock. This will allow communities to improve sustainable cattle management practices and to maintain a better level of production during dry seasons. Right now it can get really bad some times, months when it’s even hard for the cattle to survive, let alone produce milk. We are also promoting better management to reduce the extension of grazing areas.

People in the communities we are working with already had a lot of knowledge, they just need some help to putting it into practice, and some support with initial investment for equipment. They are very willing to work hard with us to make this happen because it’s in their best interest.

Now I know I like working with communities and I’m getting better at doing it. I’m thinking about getting registered as a service provider and work on my own projects to benefit communities in Chiapas.  I’m also  still considering getting a masters degree in rural development, maybe in one or two years.

EDF: Thank you Maria for sharing your life and experience working with communities in Chiapas with us.  I’m personally very grateful. You brought me back to ten years ago, when I first came to do my thesis field work and fell in love with the people and the Lacandona region, and why I’ve returned here to join others in their efforts to conserve forest and bring social benefits.

Read more about EDF's work in Mexico and with AMBIO.

Take a trip through southern Mexico, and you’re bound to see immense forests with majestic trees like ceibas or ahuehuetes, hear the sounds of howler monkeys or scarlet macaws, make out some amazing archaeological sites, and meet the area’s generous peoples.

EDF is working in Mexico with local groups like AMBIO to protect the country's forests, which are under threat of deforestation. Above: a tropical forest in Chiapas, the country's most southern state. (Photo thanks and credit to Flickr user Archivo de Proyectos)

This region has some of the richest  variety of life in Mexico, which is ranked the fifth most “biodiverse” country in the world.

But the country’s forests are under threat, and that’s not only bad for the forests and the people who live there, it’s bad for global efforts to reduce deforestation – a major contributor to global warming.

Although deforestation rates in Mexico have decreased in recent years, Mexico’s forests are still falling.

A large contribution to this deforestation is agricultural expansion that results from the unsustainable management and low productivity of land that has already been cleared. As in many other tropical forest countries, rich forests are being converted to farmland and pasture for cattle ranching.

Keeping forests alive is crucial to preventing climate change, because cutting and burning trees adds as much as all the world’s cars, trucks, ships and airplanes combined — about 15% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

Forests also capture and store carbon from the atmosphere. Any realistic plan to reduce global warming pollution sufficiently — and in time — to avoid dangerous consequences for the globe must include preserving tropical forests, like those in Mexico.

EDF has been partnering with the Mexican government and non-governmental organizations since 2009 to contribute EDF’s scientific and technical expertise to Mexico’s goal of reducing carbon emissions from forests, while supporting local communities who depend on them and act as stewards of forested lands.

Local group AMBIO works with local communities to reduce emissions from deforestation

I’ve recently moved to Chiapas, the southernmost state in Mexico. As EDF’s Mexico Program Coordinator, I’m here to work with local organizations on reducing deforestation and benefiting local communities that own forests.

Part of a hillside in Chiapas has been converted from dense forest to fields to grow crops. This practice, common in tropical forest countries, is a major contributor to climate change.

One of the groups we’ve partnered with is AMBIO, whose name is a combination of the Spanish word for environment and the Greek root for life. AMBIO has been working for 15 years with a growing number of rural communities on diverse projects to aid in rural development and curb climate change emissions. Its mission is

to drive and promote sustainable rural development through building livelihoods, gender equality, cultural preservation and the restoration and conservation of local environments.

Over the years in their work with forest communities, AMBIO staff have observed many challenges that communities face that aren’t directly addressed by AMBIO’s projects, which are largely focused on carbon sequestration and forest management. In addition, available staff resources could not always address these issues – to balance forest conservation and taking on specific technical challenges for more efficient, sustainable community production of livestock and agriculture.

An experiment becomes reality in AMBIO's internship program

AMBIO’s expert in carbon sequestration and community planning, Sotero Quechulpa, had an idea for an experiment, which AMBIO turned into reality: recruit university students who have almost completed their degrees in fields like forestry and agronomy (the science of soil management and crop production) and need hands-on experience to complete their studies, and place them as interns in rural communities to address specific local problems and capacity needs for forest management and sustainable economic alternatives.

The interns worked in Chiapas communities on projects, like helping manage forests, fruit trees, and cattle populations, that were either directly or indirectly connected to "drivers," or causes, of deforestation in the region.

Now in the program’s second year, EDF has joined AMBIO to structure and pilot an expanded program that now reaches additional communities and has expanded from four to as many as ten interns for this year.

For three to four months, the interns in AMBIO's program:

• live in the communities;
• evaluate diverse problems, including development and environmental, within the communities; and
• work with interested people in the communities to transfer and build knowledge and search for solutions to improve resource management that will help the communities avoid additional deforestation while not sacrificing their economic stability.

We know from our other partnerships around the world that technical skills and on-the-ground knowledge are complementary in addressing environmental issues — like our work with low-carbon farming in India’s rural agricultural communities and with curbing deforestation in the Amazon. EDF is now working with AMBIO to leverage this abundance of additional technical expertise from its university partners to complement their long-standing work with these communities.

Women playing important role in AMBIO’s work

Work in the forests and the fields is traditionally a male role in most communities in Mexico, but this year, more women than men have applied for the AMBIO internship positions. AMBIO’s Sotero told me they have shown a lot of commitment and enjoy the work.

AMBIO intern Maria shows members of the Corona community how to take soil samples from their pasture.

In fact, two of the three current interns working on pasture and cattle management are women, and Sotero told me he thinks we need more women like them in rural villages:

When I see my female colleagues in the field and all their knowledge I think they are a great example for people at the communities, especially for young people; they get to see women in a different role to what they are used to.

Young people and females must think, “If she can do it, so can I.”

As an example, he points to one intern Aurora, who has surprised the people in her community with the energy she has to walk for hours without tiring and by always being willing to work hard and collaborate with others.

Through my conversations with young people in Mexico and Chiapas, I can see many of them are passionate about the environment and development and looking out for opportunities to put their energy and knowledge to use to improve the situation in Mexico’s rural areas. AMBIO’s internship program provides that opportunity to connect different types of expertise and needs toward common interests.

Last week I met with one of AMBIO’s first interns, Maria, to discuss her experience working to address low productivity in cattle and high deforestation for cattle pastures. I will post my interview tomorrow to commemorate International Women’s Day.

Countries have failed in Moscow to agree on any joint moves against the European Union's pioneering law to curb emissions from aviation at a two-day meeting that ended there yesterday.

The declaration coming out of the Moscow meeting, which was reportedly attended by representatives of countries and the aviation industry, states the 23 signing countries will merely "consider" taking actions against Europe for its pioneering law to curb emissions from aviation. EDF's Annie Petsonk said "Today's failure to reach agreement on a coordinated attack indicates cooler heads may have prevailed." (Thanks and photo credit to Flickr user Aleksander Markin)

The meeting, which was preceded by a great deal of hype about 26 countries' supposedly working toward a "basket of countermeasures" against Europe, produced a joint declaration signed by 23 countries that included a "Basket of ACTIONS/ MEASURES."

However,  yesterday's Joint declaration of the Moscow meeting on inclusion of international civil aviation in the Eu-ETS only says countries will "consider taking actions/ measures" against the EU. No single coordinated attack emerged from the meeting, and Russia's Deputy Transportation Minister Valery Okulov said in a press conference that countries themselves "will choose the most effective and reliable measures that will help to cancel or postpone the implementation of the EU ETS (Emissions Trading System)."

In EDF's statement following the meeting, Annie Petsonk, EDF's International Counsel said:

The airlines ginned up a laundry list of actions they wanted governments to take so that airlines don't have to comply with a reasonable law to cut global warming pollution.

Today's failure to reach agreement on a coordinated attack indicates cooler heads may have prevailed, and if so, they are to be commended.

This Moscow gathering was a follow-up to one that took place in India last September, where the U.S., Saudi Arabia and 23 other countries signed a statement that suggested opposition to the EU law, the world’s first program to reduce global warming pollution from aviation.

ICAO action to cut aviation pollution is critical

The first action/measure in Moscow's "Basket" is launching an "Article 84" case under the Chicago Convention on Civil Aviation — a formal protest against the EU law at the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

Countries, the aviation industry and environmentalists have all called for a global system to be developed through ICAO, but 14 years of negotiations has yielded nothing.

ICAO Secretary General Raymond Benjamin had warned weeks prior to the Moscow meeting that a decision by any nation to launch an Article 84 case would distract ICAO from designing and obtaining global agreement on effective, market-based measures to address aviation greenhouse gas emissions.

EDF thinks such constructive participation can help ICAO achieve an effective and durable outcome, which is the best path toward resolving the current dispute. Petsonk said:

Had an Article 84 case been launched, that surely would have called into question the seriousness of the claims of industry and some nations that they truly want a solution in ICAO.

Speaking of industry, the airline industry trade association International Air Transport Association (IATA) was reportedly present at the meeting. However, EDF knows of no “civil society” group invited to the Moscow meeting. Petsonk said in EDF's statement:

With such a limited invite list, the meeting didn’t present an opportunity for a balanced discussion. Civil society must be afforded equal opportunity to participate in ICAO’s work going forward. Such participation can help ICAO achieve an effective and durable outcome.

These countries have agreed to meet again later this year in Saudi Arabia.

By Annie Petsonk, International Counsel, and Adam Peltz, Legal Fellow

Next week, more than two dozen countries, including the United States, are meeting in Moscow to discuss their opposition to Europe’s pioneering law to cut global warming pollution from aviation.

U.S. airlines have said the EU's law that curbs aviation emissions will cost them billions, but new calculations show they could actually make money from it. (Thanks and photo credit to Flickr user DosenPhoto.)

On the agenda for the Moscow meeting are a number of topics that have been lobbied for by the U.S. aviation industry, which has said complying with the EU law will be too expensive.

U.S. airlines have been complaining for years that complying with the EU law will cost them billions of dollars, but we’ve also seen a slew of studies that show the airlines could save money – and even profit – by participating in the system.

So we commissioned EDF’s economics team to run some numbers.

When our economists compared 1] airlines’ projected 2012 emissions (based on the 2010 data they submitted to the EU and the industry’s projected 3% annual emissions growth rate), 2] data on the free emissions allowances the EU is giving to the airlines, and 3] current prices (from Feb. 15) for emissions credits in the EU carbon market with 4] the recent $3-per-leg fare increase the airlines added last month, we found that airlines that comply with the law can actually make money.

Based on these data:

• United stands to turn a profit of $0.73 to $2.36 per ticket, or in the range of $88,000 to $287,000 a year on its flights from Washington, D.C. (Dulles) to Brussels.
• American Airlines stands to reap anywhere from $1.15 to $2.50 per passenger, or $700,000 to $1.2 million a year on its flights from New York (JFK) to London Heathrow.
• Delta Air Lines, which was the first carrier to impose a surcharge, could profit between $1.02 and $2.53 per ticket from Minneapolis, or $449,000 to $1.1 million annually on its Minneapolis to Amsterdam flight.

U.S. carriers aren't the only ones finding profit in the emissions cap; airlines around the world could be poised to profit, too:

• Etihad Airways' $3/ticket surcharge could net between $1.10 and $2.52 per passenger per flight* from Abu Dhabi to London.
• AirAsia X's surcharge of $6.50 could produce a profit of $2.05 to $5.25 per passenger per flight* from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) to Paris.
• Aeroflot Russian Airlines, if it matched United’s $3 fare increase, could make between $2.26 and $2.69 per ticket* on a typical flight from Moscow to Berlin.

(*These airlines’ ticket sales numbers are not publicly available so we are unable to calculate their potential annual profits.)

It’s critical to remember the purpose of the EU's law is to cut pollution. The aviation sector is growing so rapidly that, if emissions from aviation were left unregulated, they would quadruple from 2005 levels by 2050; the EU law will cut 183 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually by 2020, equivalent to taking 30 million cars off the road every year.

The data show that airlines’ claims of suffering a disproportionate burden and punitive costs to meet the cap are wrong. Savvy companies will see the law not as the burden that it isn’t, but as the opportunity that it is, and we would hope the airlines direct any profits to technology that can help them further reduce their emissions and fly cleaner and greener.