NSW: 40,000 hectares to be planted in NSW to offset emissions

AAP General News (Australia)
02-15-2000
NSW: 40,000 hectares to be planted in NSW to offset emissions

By Maureen Dettre

SYDNEY, Feb 15 AAP - Australia has signed a $130 million world-first deal to plant
trees to offset greenhouse gases but a CSIRO expert today warned emissions trading was
not a panacea for global warming.

Dr Chris Mitchell from the CSIRO's greenhouse research program welcomed the contract
signed yesterday between TEPCO Forests (Australia) Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Tokyo Electric
Power Co, and NSW Forests.

The deal will see NSW Forests paid $130 million to plant 40,000 hectares of hard wood
and soft wood in the state's north coast and southern tablelands over ten years.

Premier Bob Carr said it was an historic agreement that would create 200 regional jobs
over ten years.

Mr Carr said the deal was an acknowledgment by the company that global warming was
expected to worsen.

"You've got the world's biggest privately owned power utility laying out plantations
in NSW to compensate for the impact of its emissions," he said.

"That is a big step."

Dr Mitchell described the announcement as "a step in the right direction but not a
panacea for the greenhouse effect".

"It's really good that people are starting to pay attention to the issue of global
warming but they should be conscious of the fact that there is no straightforward fix,"

Dr Mitchell said.

"It's a balancing act."

People should be concentrating on reducing emissions as well as offsetting the effects, he said.

"We should be also concentrating on using energy efficiently, developing new energy
technologies, switching to less gas house intrusive fuels," he said.

Potentially, we might have to consider the dramatic and expensive option of putting
carbon dioxide into storage underground or in the sea, he said.

However, tree planting had other substantial environmental benefits, particularly in
places that had become deforested.

Australia was an ideal environment to plant forests as it had suitable forestry sites
as well as good forest management infrastructure.

NSW Forests Minister Kim Yeadon, who travelled to Tokyo to sign the agreement, said
it was an historic partnership, confirming the state's leadership in carbon trading.

He expected to sign even bigger contracts in the future as companies emitting carbon
dioxide considered how to manage their global warming risk.

The forests would also benefit other environmental issues such as the control of dryland
salinity in the Murray-Darling Basin, renewable energy systems and provide additional
timber resources, he said.

AAP maur/sb/rsm/de

KEYWORD: GREENHOUSE N/L

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