Indonesia offers carbon for sale

Irwandi Yusuf, the Governer of Indonesia is attemting to save his homeland’s forests by selling the carbon they contain, Associated Press say.

Indonesia is one of several tropical countries, including Brazil, pushing proposals at the ongoing U.N. climate talks in Bali that offer up their forests as stocks of carbon for wealthy nations or companies to buy to offset their emissions of greenhouse gases.

In effect, it means they get paid to stop chopping down their trees.

The 47-year-old said he had no firm offers yet, but hoped to announce prospective investors at Bali along with his counterpart from the eastern Indonesian region of Papua, which is also home to vast stretches of rainforest.