EU Wins a "Fossil of the Day" for The Bar

The European Union won a 'fossil of the day' yesterday from the Climate Action Network (CAN) for the idea of 'the bar' that it has been promoting in these negotiations...

During the United Nations climate change negotiations, members of CAN vote give regular 'fossil of the day' awards to the countries judged to have done their 'best' to block progress in the negotiations in the last days of talks.

Here is the text of a media release from CAN explaining the award to the EU:

"To the EU: For proposing "The Bar," a method for measuring emissions from the forest sector that could complicate negotiations on national targets and could give industrialized nations carbon credit for forest degradation.

In the contact group discussion yesterday on land use, land-use change and forestry, the EU put forward an idea that amounts to allowing any industrialized nation that chooses, to propose where its baseline will be for measuring changes in emissions from the forest sector. This would be akin to allowing countries to propose their own base year for assessing fossil fuel emission reductions. In a worst case scenario, this could allow countries to put its baseline of forest carbon low, degrade forest carbon stocks, and get carbon credit for it.

A further concern is that if this negotiation of country-specific ‘bars’ does not happen quickly enough, it could also distort the meaning of country-wide emission reduction targets."

Although 'the bar' could be promoted as a standard approach for all countries, a central element of the EU proposal is that any country could negotiate its own bar.