Please direct questions or comments to the letter authors, I'm just passing this along! The only thing I did was shorten the link because ECOLOG doesn't always play well with Google Form links.
Have a great day everyone! -Sam Davis Dogwood Alliance --- Dear all, Please sign the open letter "Scientific basis of EU climate policy on forests" addressed to the Environment Council (Ministers of Environment), EU Ministers of Energy and EU Presidency of Estonia (key persons): http://bit.ly/2flJBYC On the 13th of September 2017, the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted for an amendment of the LULUCF Regulation, which means that emissions caused by deforestation and especially forest degradation will basically be overlooked. The Parliament has a mandate to negotiate with the European Commission and European Council until the 13th of October 2017, when the Environment Council’s position on the LULUCF will be decided. The open letter is drafted by 11 Professors and Associate Professors, several of them expert members of the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC). Excerpt from the open letter: "We, the undersigned, would like to express our grave concern and dismay over the scientific basis of recent policy developments regarding EU climate legislation on forests: the LULUCF Regulation and sustainability criteria of biomass in the Renewable Energy Directive. We urge you to support the highest integrity of these two strongly interlinked EU climate laws in order to provide regulation that truly benefits the climate. The promotion of an increase in active forest management encourages increased harvest levels in order to substitute fossil-derived fuels and products with wood and bioenergy without accounting for their full climate impacts. This approach risks having adverse effects on climate, biodiversity and resilient ecosystems by emitting more greenhouse gases, influencing biophysical processes and causing additional habitat loss - accumulating evidence suggests that the proposed strategy risks being counterproductive." Deadline for signing is Sunday the 24th of September at 24:00 pm. Please circulate among your colleagues (the open letter is only open for scientists). Thank you in advance! Best regards, Amanda Tas, MSc Environmental Science Anders Lindroth, Professor emeritus, Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University Frank Götmark, Professor in Ecology and Conservation, University of Gothenburg
