from an article posted on the NY Times website around 6:30pm, by Elisabeth Rosenthal:
COPENHAGEN — Negotiators have all but completed a sweeping deal that would compensate countries for preserving forests and other natural landscapes like peat soils, swamps and fields that play a crucial role in curbing climate change.
full article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
(picture from rainforestportal.org: http://www.rainforestportal.org/...
more from the article:
The agreement for the program, once signed, may turn out to be the most significant achievement to come out of the Copenhagen climate talks, providing a system through which countries can be paid for conserving disappearing natural assets based on their contribution to reducing emissions.
A final draft of the agreement for the compensation program, called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation or REDD, is to be given on Wednesday to ministers of the nearly 200 countries gathered here to hammer out a framework for a global climate treaty. Negotiators and other participants said that though some details remained to be worked out, all major points of disagreement — how to address the rights of indigenous people living on forest land and what is defined as forest, for example — had been resolved through compromise.
This is great news, folks. This includes THE RAINFORESTS of the world, in case you were wondering. Win! Win! Win! The article says that they will probably wait until POTUS gets there to finalize this bit of awesomeness. Yippee! They also said it may take a little while for the money to start flowing, but that such is to be expected. Let us rejoice.
a schnib more from the article:
"It is likely to be the most concrete thing that comes out of Copenhagen – and it is a very big thing," (said) Fred Krupp, head of the Environmental Defense Fund.
Cheers
link to dkgreenroots.com: http://dkgreenroots.com/
UPDATE 1: From the comments, writerkirk said this:
If trees could clap, the sound would be deafening.
UPDATE 2: From commenter tubacat, who appears to have actually read the REDD report (that's the acronym for this particular agreement):
Deforestation accounts for about 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions—larger than the entire global transportation sector. Without REDD, the widely endorsed goal of climate stabilization at a maximum 2°C temperature increase will not be reached.
UPDATE 3: The title of this diary has been changed from
Earth Epic Win: Copenhagen Just Saved ALL FORESTS
to the current title, thanks to a correction from RLMiller.