Annex
FUTURE FORESTS' POSITION ON POLICY AND REGULATION
FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
Future Forests promotes action for a CarbonNeutral®
world. The company's mission is grounded in our belief that:
1. Climate change is a clear and present
threat to economic, environmental, and social stability. Climate
change has the potential to kill large numbers of people, destabilise
global and national economies, and permanently degrade the natural
environment.
2. While the causes and effects of climate
change are not fully understood, there is a compelling body of
evidence to support action now to reduce the atmospheric concentrations
of gases which give rise to climate change.
3. Policy and regulatory responses to address
the issue in an equitable and fair way will take time to develop
and implement because this is the most complex global problem
to confront modern society.
4. The overall objective of CarbonNeutral
is to stabilise concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
at a level that avoids serious and irreversible damage to the
planet's ecosystems. This will require business and society to
shift towards zero net greenhouse gas emissions by the second
half of this century.
FUTURE FORESTS'
ACTIVITIES ARE
FOUNDED ON
FOUR CORE
PRINCIPLES:
(1) Ownership—the problem and the
solutions belong to all: Every person and every organisation "owns"
a share of the problem, because our current patterns of production
and consumption give rise to emissions to the atmosphere which
cause climate change. It is therefore the responsibility of every
member of civic society and all business and government to participate
in the solution, because progress is not possible without action
by all.
(2) The Goal—Eliminate, Reduce and
Offset for a CarbonNeutral world: Action is required in three
areas. Eliminate and reduce emissions to prevent impacts at source
and then offset unavoidable emissions to compensate for unavoidable
impacts.
(3) The economics—the polluter must
pay: The Eliminate, Reduce and Offset approach respects the polluter
pays principle and so ensures that the costs of climate change
are internalised in local, national and global economies. This
is a critical requirement if we are to encourage a speedy and
significant transition to new technologies which avoid climate
change impacts at source.
(4) Voluntary Action which goes beyond the
regulatory minimum is needed and should be rewarded: Stabilising
atmospheric concentrations of climate change gases requires actions
which go way beyond the current policy and regulatory requirements,
therefore voluntary action which goes beyond these minimum requirements
should be encouraged and rewarded by government.
THE PATH
TOWARDS CLIMATE
CHANGE ACTION
Future Forests believes that there is a clear
path that we can all follow towards protecting our climate and
hence our economy and environment. We must raise awareness of
the problem of, and solutions to, climate change. We must look
to quantify the full extent of how our home and work activities
give rise to greenhouse gas emissions. We must reduce our current
levels of emissions by eliminating and avoiding releases at source.
Recognising that not all emissions can be eradicated instantly,
we must offset those carbon emissions which are currently unavoidable.
Finally, we must look to communicate the problem so that others
follow in our footsteps and continue the path towards climate
change action.
THE POLITICAL
ARENA
Future Forests believes that each political
party has a responsibility to protect and safeguard the environment.
We call for all political parties to:
(1) Adopt an urgent and proactive attitude
to improving the effectiveness of international, national, and
local legislative frameworks—specifically encouraging countries
that are currently outside the process to rejoin and to strengthen
targets, mechanisms, and processes to deliver an equitable and
speedy response to climate change.
(2) Stimulate and promote activities consistent
with the measure, reduce, offset, and communicate pathway, and
reward voluntary action beyond requirements of current legislation
though financial incentives.
(3) Ensure maximum awareness of individual's
personal carbon impact in three areas of life—at school,
at home, and at work—with a commitment to a climate change
measurement module for children in school curricula.
(4) Lead by example by ensuring that government
policies and operations are consistent with the principles of
ownership and action beyond the regulatory minimum with the goal
of ensuring that all Government policies are CarbonNeutral by
2010.
For its part Future Forests will record and
make public the impact of the process of government and of government
policies.
29 October 2004
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