According to the UK Green Party website the Green Party will try to achieve the following if they gain power at the 2010 general election:
CC260 Deforestation accounts for several billion tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, and this figure is rising. Scientists are worried that deforestation has pushed the Amazon close to a tipping point beyond which it may no longer be able to sustain its rainfall cycle and could progressively turn into savannah and even desert, vastly accelerating global warming. Emergency action is needed to implement a global moratorium on logging and burning of old growth forests; while ecological restoration must be funded to restore ancient forests which have been degraded or destroyed. The industrialised nations and multinational companies have profited the most from the cheap timber and pulp, cattle feed, meat and other food imports which result from global deforestation, and must therefore pay the cost of implementing a logging and land conversion moratorium. Trade rules must be changed to ban the international trade in products produced at the expense of old- growth forests.
CC261 The Green Party calls for an emergency international agreement to stop global deforestation. This must be developed as a priority and implemented in full consultation with the local and indigenous communities recognising traditional land rights. This must be made an integral part of existing and future climate change frameworks and the EU and UK must begin to work towards these aims now, not delay action until adopted by the UN.
I would be interested to hear both positive and negative views on UK Green Party’s Climate Change and Rainforests policies in the comments below?