Making money out of thin air
YNET
Israel may soon ‘sell’ air at special ‘stock market’ trading oxygen emitted by
trees
Amir Ben-David
Published: 01.16.07, 12:30
Air stock market? Yes, there is such a thing. There is also a chance that Israel
will join it and start making money off the rockets that fell during the second
Lebanon war .
Allow us to explain. Human actions on earth, mainly the burning of fuels and the
emission of gases, as well as the interference with various natural processes,
have brought about the interruption of the natural balance which previously
existed here.
The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
is the main international system designed to deal with that issue.
Among other things, the protocol allows for entities which “stop” the emission
of toxic gases into the air (buy planting trees) to calculate the amount of
gaseous activity their intervention actually prevented.
The protocol also allows for the “worth” of the above gases to be sold in a
special international “stock market”.
Those who pay are the operators of industrial factories and other international
companies which are required to cut down on the amount of toxic gas they emit,
although that proved to be a difficult task.
It is here that the Jewish National Fund (JNF) enters the picture along with the
many trees consumed by fires during the Lebanon war.
Money could be used to maintain forests
The head of strategic planning at JNF, Yishai Schechter, said that planting new
trees would increase Israel’s contribution to the prevention of unwanted gases
being emitted into the air.
If enough trees were planted in place of the ones burned down during the war,
JNF would be able to join the Kyoto Protocol and earn an income of hundreds of
thousands of shekels each year – money which could then be used to maintain
forests.
JNF was looking into whether the replanting of over 12 thousand dunam (3
thousand acres) of trees burned during the war would count as replanting and
not “restoring” the forest, which would not earn Israel points at the
international air stock market, otherwise known as The Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM).
Another point being looked into was whether or not it was profitable to replant
the number of trees needed for Israel to join the protocol.
JNF's estimates showed that the addition of any less than 10 thousand dunam
(2,500 acres) of forest area would not be profitable due to the high expenses
involved in the process.