by The World Resources Institute and The World Conservation Union (IUCN) - November 1998
Over the past 150 years, deforestation has contributed an estimated 30 percent of the atmospheric build-up of CO2. It is also a significant driving force behind the loss of genes, species, and critical ecosystem services.
This report explains why delaying policy implementation threatens to make climate protection more, not less, costly while also postponing potential benefits from early action.
The United States and other nations are committed under the Framework Convention on Climate Change to prevent greenhouse gases from accumulating in the atmosphere, but the economic impacts of limiting greenhouse gas emissions are almost as uncertain as the impacts of climate change themselves.
