Brookings Institute hosts Climate Change forum

Today at the Brookings Institute here in Washington, Johan Eliasch, Special Representative on Reforestation and Clean Energy for UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, gave a talk entitled "Climate Change: the Next Global Security Threat."

Eliasch stated that deforestation contributes to 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, more than transportation or even agriculture. However, indigenous people often level forests out of necessity for wood, which they either use or sell. So he co-created Cool Earth, a company that allows people to invest in forest conservation based on the premise that "trees must be made more valuable standing than logged." Eliasch has personally purchased 400,000 acres of Amazon woodlands, meaning he pays indigenous people to preserve the land and keep loggers away.