Climate change, biodiversity, livelihoods, and sustainagility in Southeast Asia

The IPCC (2007) has compiled strong scientific evidence that the global climate is changing at rates not seen in recent geological history. This change is causally linked to changes in the composition of the atmosphere. This in turn is largely caused by an increase of the greenhouse Gas (GHG) effect due to emissions of CO2 that had been stored in the past as energy-rich organic compounds or ascalcium carbonate. The CO2 are released by use of fossil fuel or cement. About 20 per cent of the increase in GHGs gasses is caused by the release of CO2 that has been stored for hundreds or thousands of years, in aboveground forest biomass or peat soils. International agreement on emission reduction is hard to reach mainly due to the large differences in per capita emissions between countries. Countries with high historical emissions do not want accept equal per capita emission rights.