by Matteo Cavallito<\/p>\n
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Indonesia<\/strong>‘s efforts to reduce its reliance on coal are likely to produce increased deforestation<\/strong> according to a study<\/a> by environmental think tank Trend Asia<\/strong>. The goal – to scale back the burden of the most polluting fossil source, a goal that has not yet been achieved – looks understandable, of course. The government’s plan to increase the use of woody biomass, however, raises some concern.<\/p>\n Growing demand fro biomass, in fact, “will threaten more than a million hectares<\/strong> of rainforest and result in massive net carbon emissions,” the the Jakarta-based organization says. Emissions savings from reduced coal use, in other words, would be dwarfed by the resulting decline in CO2 sequestration by plants and soil.<\/p>\n