Climate change mitigation in the energy and forestry sectors of developingcountries

The continued accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is expecte d to severely impact the earth's natural resources and agriculture. Greenho use gas emissions from the developing world are rising faster than those fr om other countries, and many studies have noted that it would not be possib le to stabilize climate change without reducing the growth of these emissio ns. Can this be achieved without affecting economic growth and social fabri c in these countries? Mitigation studies indicate that if energy efficiency and forestry options are implemented judiciously, emissions can be reduced at a negative cost without affecting economic growth. The studies also sug gest that this would increase significantly the worldwide demand for natura l gas and renewable technologies. Country studies show that the aggregate m itigation potential in the forestry sector is higher, and the costs per ton ne of carbon are lower, than reported earlier by global studies. Barriers t o the implementation of energy and forestry options need to be explicitly t aken into consideration because these may change the priority of options an d the choice of policy measures.