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Developing countries and human rights groups will clash today at a key UN climate change meeting intended to arrest the destruction of tropical forests. The felling is responsible for almost 20% of annual global carbon emissions, making it a crucial target in the battle against global warming.
Diplomats from more than 100 countries are meeting in Accra, Ghana, to open negotiations on whether tropical forests should join the emerging global carbon market. This would allow countries and companies to earn money from not cutting down their trees.
The move, backed strongly by many developing countries and the G8, is expected to greatly increase the financial value of forests. It would encourage governments and corporations to protect them and would potentially transfer hundreds of millions of pounds a year to some of the poorest countries in the world.
But human rights and environment groups from three continents are warning that the over-hasty ...