Summary/Abstract
The hotly debated question among parties to the UNFCCC within the negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol was whether changes in carbon stocks should be accounted for within the Kyoto framework. That is, the question was whether carbon removals by sinks would be rewarded and thus could be traded within the Kyoto emissions trade regime. The debate centered around four issues: scale, non-permanence, uncertainty, and the question of credibility. Furthermore, the question was raised whether or not CO2 removals by sinks in developing countries should also be able to generate credits to be used within the emissions trading regime. In this article, from 2005, the solution that parties found to address these questions is described and analyzed. First, the general approach chosen towards sinks is outline. Second, the rules that govern forestry projects in developing countries are described, then the rules that forestry projects in developed countries would need to follow are briefly set out. Lastly, the decision by the European Union on how to incorporate credits from projects into the EU emissions trading scheme is analyzed.