Britain has pledged to provide £100m to tropical countries like Brazil and Papua New Guinea to conserve forests and address climate change. 

A new UN scheme, the so-called Redd initiative, plans to extend carbon trading to forests and the investment will allow countries access to much needed funds.  It will compensate nations who retard deforestation rates with carbon credits, which are sellable to 'rich' nations who must need emission reduction targets.  

However, barriers include the inability to accurately measure how much carbon is in trees and the method of verifying emission reductions.

Ed Miliband, UK's Energy and Climate Change Secretary said, "The money we are putting forward is to hasten action with regards to deforestation, and looking at how the global carbon market can help give an incentive to forest countries to reduce their rates of deforestation."

Miliband said the funding would be used to help rainforest countries develop and improve their infrastructure without damaging their forests. It will support initiatives such as finding ways to enable farmers to make a living without cutting down trees, adding that almost a fifth of emissions were caused by deforestation and changes to how land was used.

Miliband said it was a good move for Britain to hand over the money, despite the current economic problems. "If we don't do something on global eforestation, then events that I saw in my constituency [Doncaster] a year ago, with terrible flooding, will happen more often."

He said: "Protecting and replenishing the planet's forests is essential to tackling climate change... developed and developing countries have come together to chart a way forward so that we can tackle climate change and make lives better for people who live in forest communities.  And this agreement embodies the spirit of co-operation we need with everyone accepting they have a part to play in tackling climate change, including the need for finance."

"There can be no backsliding on our commitments to a future of low-carbon emissions. When it comes to climate change, the stakes are far higher," said the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

The promised £100m pledged is part of an £800m package for environmental projects announced last year to be administered by the World Bank.  Other donars include France, Germany and Norway.

Douglas Alexander, International Development Secretary said, "Protecting the forests in developing countries is vital in cutting carbon emissions but this must be done hand in hand with ensuring communities can still feed themselves and earn a living.  The funding will support activities such as enabling farmers to make a living in ways that mean they don't have to cut down more forests."

UK has already committed £60 million to measures to help conserve the Congo Basin rainforest and £15 million to a World Bank demonstration scheme on preserving forests.  THE END.