Ecuador sing the UUNN agreement to keep the oil underground

Ecuador's $3.6bn scheme to save its rainforest from exploitation could point the way to sparing other threatened landscapes

By Esmé McAvoy
Sunday, 8 August 2010

The world's first genuinely green energy deal is about to be sealed. In a plan which could be a blueprint for saving large tracts of the planet from exploitation, a greater value is being put on a pristine wilderness than on the oil that lies beneath.

While the world's industrialised countries are building complex carbon markets to enable them to carry on polluting, Ecuador has come up with a much simpler idea for mitigating climate change: leave the oil underground. It is promising to lock up as much as a fifth of its oil reserves indefinitely, providing rich nations pay out at least half the market value of the oil – some $3.6bn – as compensation.

The trail-blazing proposal was first floated in 2007, but it took a step towards reality last week when the UN Development Programme signed an agreement with the Ecuadorean government to be the independent administrator for the project's trust fund. The accord makes Ecuador the only country in the world offering to leave lucrative oil reserves untapped in an attempt to slow climate change.

TO read more go to the Independient

More time to Yasuni¡

Good news - another 6 months has been given to get support for the proposal, until July 2009.

On the 12th of January, only a few days after the minister for oil and
mining announced that the ITT block was now open for bids, the
Ecuadorian government seemed to have a change of heart. Instead a
further 6 months (until the July 2009) was given to the proposal to
not exploit the oil under the heart of the Yasuni in return for
international compensation.

Minister Falconí, who announced this development, said that the
Yasuni-ITT Initiative is a breaking point in the history of Ecuador
and is a symbol of the government of the Civic Revolution.

Reason for this extension seems to be due to heavy support form the
German and Norwegian governments and interest from the European
Parliament, organizations like the IDB and the World Bank and various
organizations of civil society.

However others believe that with national elections coming up in
Ecuador, this is simply a way for Correa to keep the votes of those
eager to protect the Yasuní.

Either way, the interest shown by the international community has
meant that it is now not possible to drop the proposal without
consequence. It is important that we take advantage of this and keep
pushing for a fairer proposal.

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You can read here some of the reactions about the "Yasuni Green Gold" book in Ecuador

To keep going with our "Yasuni Green Gold Campaign" we urgently need more funding. Please support the Campign:

* Donate
* Buy a book (and learn more about Yasuni National Park)
* Help us finding some funding. Writte us to info@yasunigreengold.org

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