Menutup Lubang Ozon dengan Sejuta Pohon
Ozon dilapisan stratosfer memiliki peran penting dalam menyerap radiasi sinar UV (Ultraviolet) yang di pancarkan matahari ke bumi.Sejumlah senyawa polutan dapat menghancurkan ozon. Data terbaru mengungkapkan bahwa kerusakan lubang ozon di kutub Selatan sebesar 27 juta kilomter persegi.
Hal ini membuatnya lebih besar dibandingkan Amerika Utara yang luasnya sekitar 25 juta kilometer persegi.
Hal ini terjadi karena banyak sekali perilaku hidup manusia yang tanpa disadari menyebabkan kerusakan. Pusat Sains dan Teknologi Atmosfer Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional (LAPAN) merilis, bahwa lubang ozon di kutub Selatan ini bukan dalam arti lubang yang sebenarnya pada lapisan ozon. Akan tetapi, lubang ozon merupakan penipisan lapisan-lapisan ozon dengan konsentrasi lebih rendah dari 220 DU. Nilai ini berdasarkan pengamatan ozon di Kutub Selatan yang tidak pernah lebih tinggi dari 220 DU sejak tahun 1979.
Sedangkan kondisi ozon di Indonesia berdasarkan data total ozon hasil pengukuran satelit Nimbus pada Juni 2009, ada kecendrungan penurunan konsentrasi ozon total di Indonesia sebesar 0,29 DU/tahun. Bahan-bahan kimia perusak lapisan ozon ini terutama berasal dari jenis chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) yang digunakan dalam berbagai produk proses seperti lemari es, pendingin udara, proses pembuatan busa lembut, sebagai cairan pembersih.
Ozon merupakan gas yang secara alami terdapat didalam atmosfer. Lapisan ozon mulai dikenal oleh seorang ilmuwan dari Jerman, Christian Friedrich Schonbein pada tahun 1839. Ozon adalah hasil reaksi antara oksigen dengan sinar ultraviolet dari matahari. Istilah ‘ozon’ atau lebih tepat lagi ‘lapisan ozon’ mulai mendapat perhatian sekitar tahun 1980-an ketika para ilmuwan menemukan adanya ‘lubang’ di lapisan ozon di Antartika.
Lubang tersebut merupakan hasil dari tenaga matahari yang mengeluarkan radiasi ultra yang tinggi. Radiasi itu berpecah menjadi molekul oksigen sekaligus melepaskan atom bebas di mana setengahnya diikat dengan molekul oksigen yang lain untuk membentuk ozon.
Kerusakan lapisan ozon adalah istilah yang sering digunakan untuk mendeskripsikan berkurangnya atau hilangnya lapisan ozon yang terdapat pada lapisan atmosfir. Berdasarkan laporan dari NASA bahwa lubang ozon di Antartika telah mencapai 29 juta Km².
Konsentrasi rata-rata lapisan ozon kurang dari 200 DU dikategorikan sebagai lubang ozon (Ozone Hole). Penyebab rusaknya atau menipisnya lapisan ozon yaitu oleh Bahan Perusak Ozon (BPO) yang diemisikan dari berbagai kegiatan, baik dalam menggunakan atau memproduksi barang mengandung BPO.
Ancaman yang diketahui terhadap keseimbangan ozon adalah kloroflrokarbon (CFC) yang mengakibatkan menipisnya lapisan ozon. CFC digunakan oleh masyarakat modern dengan cara yang tidak terkira banyaknya, misalnya dengan : AC,Kulkas,bahan dorong dalam penyembur (aerosol), di antaranya kaleng semprot untuk pengharum ruangan, penyemprot rambut atau parfum pembuatan busa,bahan pelarut terutama bagi kilang-kilang elektronik.
Satu buah molekul CFC memiliki masa hidup 50 hingga 100 tahun dalam atmosfer sebelum dihapuskan. Dalam waktu kira-kira 5 tahun, CFC bergerak naik dengan perlahan ke dalam stratosfer (10 – 50 km). Molekul CFC terurai setelah bercampur dengan sinar UV, dan membebaskan atom Klorin. Atom klorin ini berupaya memusnahkan ozon dan menghasilkan lubang ozon. Penipisan lapisan ozon akan menyebabkan lebih banyak sinar UV memasuki bumi.
Mencegah Penipisan Ozon
Berdasar pada temuan-temuan para penelitimenyebutkan, bahwa bahan perusak lapisan ozon banyak digunakan dalam industri alat pemadam kebakaran dan Metil Bromida yang dipakai untuk bahan pestisida. Pemakaian bahan-bahan ini meningkat dengan cepat sejak tahun 1970-an yang menyebabkan kandungannya di atmosfer juga meningkat.
Untuk mengatasi hal ini adalah dengan cara mengubah perilaku manusia. Masyarakat harus disadarkan bahwa manusia harus hidup lebih lama dengan suasana nyaman dan aman. Edukasi yang disampaikan bisa dalam bentuk cerita dan bukti nyata supaya warga tergerak hatinya untuk hidup dengan cara yang lebih baik.
Karena, sampai hari ini banyak sekali kebiasaan masyarakat yang tidak sesuai dengan pola back to nature atau slogan Let’s Go Green yang sering dikumandangkan di televisi atau di iklankan di media cetak. Pola hidup konsumtif dan membuang sampah sembarangan masih lebih mendominasi kebiasaan hidup manusia di muka bumi ini. Mungkin di beberapa negara ada aturan-aturan yang "terpaksa" membuat warganya dilisplin. Indonesia pun seharusnya bisa mengadopsi tata cara seperti ini.
Tak perlu jauh-jauh mengambil contoh pola hidup salah yang merusak lingkungan dan alam. Indonesia masih terkenal sebagai negara pembabat hutan, beberapa penduduknya masih jauh dari kebiasaan hidup disiplin. Di kota Medan sendiri, masih banyak individu yang sedang berada di dalam mobil membuang sampah sembarangan ke jalan umum. Padahal, di kiri kanan jalan sudah disediakan tempat-tempat sampah.
Perlu diketahui, bahwa penipisan lapisan ozon akan menyebabkan lebih banyak sinar radiasi ultra ungu memasuki bumi. Radiasi ultra ungu ini dapat membuat efek pada kesehatan manusia, memusnahkan kehidupan laut, ekosistem, mengurangi hasil pertanian dan hutan. Efek utama pada manusia adalah peningkatan penyakit kanker kulit karena selain itu dapat merusak mata termasuk kataraks dan juga mungkin akan melemahkan sistem imunisasi badan.
Pada bidang pertanian, penerimaan sinar ultra violet pada tanaman dapat memusnahkan hasil tanaman utama dunia. Hasil kajian menunjukkan hasil tanaman seperti ‘barli’ dan ‘oat’ menunjukkan penurunan karena penerimaan sinar radiasi yang semakin tinggi. Tanaman diperkirakan akan mengalami kelambatan pertumbuhan, bahkan akan cenderung kerdil, sehingga merusak hasil panen dan hutan-hutan yang ada.
Radiasi penuh ini juga dapat mematikan anak-anak ikan, kepiting dan udang di lautan, serta mengurangi jumlah plankton yang menjadi salah satu sumber makanan kebanyakan hewan-hewan laut. Kerusakan lapisan ozon juga memiliki pengaruh langsung pada pemanasan bumi yang sering disebut sebagai "efek rumah kaca". Usaha-usaha untuk mencegah penipisan ozon menjadi mulai dilakukan bersama oleh semua negara di dunia.
Usaha itu pun telah digalakkan secara serius melalui UNEP (United Nation Environment Programme) salah satu organisasi PBB yang bergerak di bidang program perlindungan lingkungan dan alam. Oleh karena itu, kita semua harus memandang serius masalah ini dan berupaya untuk mencegah atau meminimalkan penipisan lapisan ozon di alam ini dengan cara meminimalkan penggunaan bahan-bahan yang dapat mempertipis ozon agar generasi yang akan datang dapat mewarisi alam sekitar yang masih baik.
Penanaman hutan baru dapat mereduksi CO2 di atmosfer. Proses ini disebut dengan proses berkelanjutan dari carbon. Sesuai dengan program pemerintah dengan ‘gerakan sejuta pohon‘ diharapkan dapat mengurangi pemanasan global dan menutup lubang ozon. Penanaman pohon-pohon baru di beberapa kawasan harus dilakukan secara berkesinambungan, di mana setiap kali ada penebangan pohon disaat itu juga ada upaya untuk menanamnya kembali dengan pohon baru atau tanaman baru.
(Penulis adalah pemerhati masalah lingkungan)
© 2008 Harian Analisa. All rights reserved.
Minggu, 24 Juli 2011
the Thomson Reuters Foundation
FOREST CONSERVATION MARKETS SLOWLY TURN TO REDD - POINT CARBON
24 Jul 2011 23:01
Source: reuters // Reuters
* Credits to reduce deforestation and degradation (REDD)
* Each is for a tonne of CO2 saved by unfelled forest
* So far demand is only in a small, thin voluntary market
By Valerie Volcovici, Point Carbon News
WASHINGTON, July 24 - As U.N. talks keep failing to agree how to raise money to protect forests, private investors are testing a trade in credits to slow the deforestation that emits as much carbon as all the world's cars, ships, trucks and planes.
French bank BNP Paribas is one of a handful of financial institutions and investment funds entering the risky but potentially lucrative market for REDD "credits" - units representing one tonne of carbon dioxide not emitted because a forest was left standing.
Last September, BNP's commodities derivatives arm provided $50 million to Wildlife Works, a conservation project developer designing a portfolio of projects to reduce deforestation and degradation (REDD) in Africa.
In that deal, BNP also acquired the rights to buy up to 1.25 million carbon credits over the next five years from Wildlife Works' flagship project in Kenya's Kasigau corridor.
This scheme aims to protect over 500,000 acres (202,400 hectares) of forest, secure a wildlife migration corridor between two national parks and bring sustainable benefits to local communities through education, jobs for rangers, and an "ecofactory" to produce organic cotton clothing.
But such carbon credits have only found demand in a small, thinly traded voluntary carbon market, as countries struggle to agree new, binding emissions cuts under U.N. climate talks where acrimony lingers after the failed Copenhagen summit in 2009.
"There is growing impatience with the multilateral process, not only from practitioners such as myself, but more importantly, from many forest countries themselves," said Christian del Valle, environmental markets and forestry director at BNP Paribas.
"Thus far the multilateral process has not delivered meaningful on-the-ground results, and forests continue to be lost because the only accessible price signal today indicates they are worth more cut down than standing," added London-based del Valle, who is driving the bank's investment in forest protection in Africa and Latin America.
A full U.N. climate deal could create a market through which rich polluting countries can buy carbon credits, paying for forest protection in the process, just as they pay for clean energy projects now under the Kyoto Protocol's existing carbon offset market, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
So far the only demand for forest carbon credits has been in the voluntary carbon market, worth $424 million last year, which lacks the binding rules that underpin the CDM.
Governments, such as Norway, Germany, Britain and the United States have pledged roughly $6.5 billion to help poorer countries develop systems to reduce emissions from deforestation, but that is seen only as a halfway house.
Private sector involvement will be essential.
Recent studies suggest that between $17 billion and $33 billion per year is needed to achieve a United Nations Environment Programme recommendation to halve global emissions from deforestation by 2030.
"We are not going to get the scale of what we need without participation by the private sector," said Donna Lee, who served as the lead U.N. negotiator on REDD for the United States and is now a consultant for advisory group Climate Focus. "There is a disconnect between the understanding by countries and (UN) negotiators and the private sector of what the private sector needs in order to participate in REDD," she said.
Lee said the U.N.'s climate change secretariat is not institutionally equipped for private sector participation or input.
Some negotiators view project developers and private investors as "carbon cowboys" responsible for the design of dubious carbon offset projects in developing countries under the present Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), she added.
One alternative to the so far futile attempts by the United Nations to achieve multilateral agreement among all its members may be bilateral or national action between two individual countries involving the private sector.
"It would be beautiful if everything could be done under the U.N. (climate change framework) but it is not. The success of the U.N. will likely be to ready REDD host countries to participate in emerging REDD market mechanisms but not to get global commitments out of developed countries," said Leslie Durschinger, founder of Terra Global, which runs a private equity fund that raises project finance for REDD.
POCKETS OF DEMAND
She and other investors see pockets of demand emerging from national and regional carbon markets sprouting up across the globe.
Countries like Japan and Australia may allow their emitters to use REDD credits to comply with their proposed emissions trading schemes. And regulators in the state of California have said they may allow REDD credits from certain rainforest states and provinces abroad in their future carbon market from 2015.
"When you look beneath that surface layer you see the pieces that are there that will ultimately build the market for REDD. Slowly but surely you will see increased demand and successful and well-designed projects on the ground securing private capital," Durschinger said.
Besides BNP, other early investors in these emerging markets include South Africa's Nedbank Group , which provided an early multimillion dollar investment in the first phase of Wildlife Works' Kenya project, to help meet the bank's goal to become carbon neutral.
Australia's Macquarie Bank announced this month it has raised $25 million to invest in forest carbon projects with the International Finance Corp. and a U.S. forest management firm.
Banking giant Bank of America Merrill Lynch is not yet directly investing in REDD but is partnering with a number of environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) developing REDD projects in China, Brazil, Indonesia and elsewhere.
Abyd Karmali, head of carbon markets at Bank of America Merrill Lynch , said his bank was merely "testing the waters" in its investment in REDD. He said reservations about investing in REDD boil down to a simple economic issue.
"Secure demand is all it would take to motivate more private sector interest," he said.
To drive that demand it may be necessary to be more imaginative about how to sell forest conservation in private sector markets, moving beyond carbon credits to other, perhaps less tradable assets such as brands.
REDD offset deals that are taking place in the voluntary carbon market represent just a fraction of the private sector's investment potential, said Benoit Bosquet, a lead carbon finance specialist at the World Bank.
"Right now what we understand is a sort of CDM-like offset system because we know the private sector has been involved in the CDM," said Bosquet, who coordinates the bank's fund that supports developing countries' REDD readiness efforts.
"It would be very sad if private sector investments in REDD would be limited to the purchase of carbon offset credits."
Companies in agriculture, energy, transport, tourism and mining -- all of which may have a forest footprint -- can identify opportunities at different stages of their production chains that investors can participate in. An example could be an agricultural company raising crops on already degraded land rather than clearing more forests.
"This full range of opportunities is nowhere near fully understood," said Bosquet. "I think you are going to see different investors move into different segments of this range of opportunities - some that are quite keen to invest in REDD regardless of the carbon offset opportunities." (Editing by Gerard Wynn and Anthony Barker)
More websites from the Thomson Reuters Foundation:
Trust.org
AlertNet
TrustLaw
TrustMedia
EIS
Copyright © 2011 Thomson Reuters Foundation
24 Jul 2011 23:01
Source: reuters // Reuters
* Credits to reduce deforestation and degradation (REDD)
* Each is for a tonne of CO2 saved by unfelled forest
* So far demand is only in a small, thin voluntary market
By Valerie Volcovici, Point Carbon News
WASHINGTON, July 24 - As U.N. talks keep failing to agree how to raise money to protect forests, private investors are testing a trade in credits to slow the deforestation that emits as much carbon as all the world's cars, ships, trucks and planes.
French bank BNP Paribas is one of a handful of financial institutions and investment funds entering the risky but potentially lucrative market for REDD "credits" - units representing one tonne of carbon dioxide not emitted because a forest was left standing.
Last September, BNP's commodities derivatives arm provided $50 million to Wildlife Works, a conservation project developer designing a portfolio of projects to reduce deforestation and degradation (REDD) in Africa.
In that deal, BNP also acquired the rights to buy up to 1.25 million carbon credits over the next five years from Wildlife Works' flagship project in Kenya's Kasigau corridor.
This scheme aims to protect over 500,000 acres (202,400 hectares) of forest, secure a wildlife migration corridor between two national parks and bring sustainable benefits to local communities through education, jobs for rangers, and an "ecofactory" to produce organic cotton clothing.
But such carbon credits have only found demand in a small, thinly traded voluntary carbon market, as countries struggle to agree new, binding emissions cuts under U.N. climate talks where acrimony lingers after the failed Copenhagen summit in 2009.
"There is growing impatience with the multilateral process, not only from practitioners such as myself, but more importantly, from many forest countries themselves," said Christian del Valle, environmental markets and forestry director at BNP Paribas.
"Thus far the multilateral process has not delivered meaningful on-the-ground results, and forests continue to be lost because the only accessible price signal today indicates they are worth more cut down than standing," added London-based del Valle, who is driving the bank's investment in forest protection in Africa and Latin America.
A full U.N. climate deal could create a market through which rich polluting countries can buy carbon credits, paying for forest protection in the process, just as they pay for clean energy projects now under the Kyoto Protocol's existing carbon offset market, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
So far the only demand for forest carbon credits has been in the voluntary carbon market, worth $424 million last year, which lacks the binding rules that underpin the CDM.
Governments, such as Norway, Germany, Britain and the United States have pledged roughly $6.5 billion to help poorer countries develop systems to reduce emissions from deforestation, but that is seen only as a halfway house.
Private sector involvement will be essential.
Recent studies suggest that between $17 billion and $33 billion per year is needed to achieve a United Nations Environment Programme recommendation to halve global emissions from deforestation by 2030.
"We are not going to get the scale of what we need without participation by the private sector," said Donna Lee, who served as the lead U.N. negotiator on REDD for the United States and is now a consultant for advisory group Climate Focus. "There is a disconnect between the understanding by countries and (UN) negotiators and the private sector of what the private sector needs in order to participate in REDD," she said.
Lee said the U.N.'s climate change secretariat is not institutionally equipped for private sector participation or input.
Some negotiators view project developers and private investors as "carbon cowboys" responsible for the design of dubious carbon offset projects in developing countries under the present Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), she added.
One alternative to the so far futile attempts by the United Nations to achieve multilateral agreement among all its members may be bilateral or national action between two individual countries involving the private sector.
"It would be beautiful if everything could be done under the U.N. (climate change framework) but it is not. The success of the U.N. will likely be to ready REDD host countries to participate in emerging REDD market mechanisms but not to get global commitments out of developed countries," said Leslie Durschinger, founder of Terra Global, which runs a private equity fund that raises project finance for REDD.
POCKETS OF DEMAND
She and other investors see pockets of demand emerging from national and regional carbon markets sprouting up across the globe.
Countries like Japan and Australia may allow their emitters to use REDD credits to comply with their proposed emissions trading schemes. And regulators in the state of California have said they may allow REDD credits from certain rainforest states and provinces abroad in their future carbon market from 2015.
"When you look beneath that surface layer you see the pieces that are there that will ultimately build the market for REDD. Slowly but surely you will see increased demand and successful and well-designed projects on the ground securing private capital," Durschinger said.
Besides BNP, other early investors in these emerging markets include South Africa's Nedbank Group , which provided an early multimillion dollar investment in the first phase of Wildlife Works' Kenya project, to help meet the bank's goal to become carbon neutral.
Australia's Macquarie Bank announced this month it has raised $25 million to invest in forest carbon projects with the International Finance Corp. and a U.S. forest management firm.
Banking giant Bank of America Merrill Lynch is not yet directly investing in REDD but is partnering with a number of environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) developing REDD projects in China, Brazil, Indonesia and elsewhere.
Abyd Karmali, head of carbon markets at Bank of America Merrill Lynch , said his bank was merely "testing the waters" in its investment in REDD. He said reservations about investing in REDD boil down to a simple economic issue.
"Secure demand is all it would take to motivate more private sector interest," he said.
To drive that demand it may be necessary to be more imaginative about how to sell forest conservation in private sector markets, moving beyond carbon credits to other, perhaps less tradable assets such as brands.
REDD offset deals that are taking place in the voluntary carbon market represent just a fraction of the private sector's investment potential, said Benoit Bosquet, a lead carbon finance specialist at the World Bank.
"Right now what we understand is a sort of CDM-like offset system because we know the private sector has been involved in the CDM," said Bosquet, who coordinates the bank's fund that supports developing countries' REDD readiness efforts.
"It would be very sad if private sector investments in REDD would be limited to the purchase of carbon offset credits."
Companies in agriculture, energy, transport, tourism and mining -- all of which may have a forest footprint -- can identify opportunities at different stages of their production chains that investors can participate in. An example could be an agricultural company raising crops on already degraded land rather than clearing more forests.
"This full range of opportunities is nowhere near fully understood," said Bosquet. "I think you are going to see different investors move into different segments of this range of opportunities - some that are quite keen to invest in REDD regardless of the carbon offset opportunities." (Editing by Gerard Wynn and Anthony Barker)
More websites from the Thomson Reuters Foundation:
Trust.org
AlertNet
TrustLaw
TrustMedia
EIS
Copyright © 2011 Thomson Reuters Foundation
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