The US proposal is backed by Canada and Japan. They said the proposal was a blatant attempt to dump the problem of global warming onto the world's poor countries and get out of making costly cuts in energy consumption. The United States and others want to use wilderness areas such as the Amazon, whose trees consume the gas, as well as domestic forests to offset their own carbon dioxide emissions. Under the scenario preferred by the United States, richer countries which have emissions reduction targets could buy credits from developing nations which have forests that soak up carbon dioxide. The talks are set against a backdrop of increasingly severe weather which has buffeted Europe, Asia and Africa in recent months, moving the issue of global warming further into the political mainstream in affluent countries.
Many scientists blame the events on global climate change in part brought on by greenhouse gases.
It has already begun between some countries which produce less than their globally agreed maximum and those who, way over the red line, must pay to keep their over-pollution from pushing the global total over it as well. Scientists fear world temperatures may rise by up to six degrees centigrade this century, creating more extreme weather. Greenpeace said counting on sinks, whether at home or abroad, to make up for not reducing emissions, was scientifically questionable and politically unacceptable. But Greenpeace and other big-name groups such as Friends of the Earth and the World Wide Fund for Nature were dealt a slap on Thursday by scientists who backed the principle. The Union of Concerned Scientists, a US group which examines the data behind policy issues, released a statement signed by 110 environmental researchers, including a Nobel prize winner, saying the Kyoto agreement should include sinks.