THE CASE FOR INWARD LOOKING CARBON ACTION

But American Electric Power chief executive Michael G. Morris said Greenpeace is naive to suggest the world should create a multibillion-dollar fund to preserve forests instead of letting corporations undertake initiatives to meet their bottom line.

"When Greenpeace says the only reason American Electric Power wants to do this is because it doesn't want to shut down its coal plants, my answer is, 'You bet, because our coal plants serve our customers very cost-effectively,' " he said.

Greenpeace response is that at this critical time "with the [climate] negotiations in Copenhagen and U.S. legislation the world cannot afford to take a gamble."

The gamble Greenpeace refers to is the backers of programs to curb carbon emissions- some of which haven't been as effective as anticipated.

More than a decade ago in the northeast corner of Bolivia, a group of polluters and environmentalists joined forces in the first large-scale experiment to curb climate change with a strategy that promised to suit their competing interests: compensating for greenhouse gas emissions by preserving forests.

The coalition of U.S. utility companies, two nonprofit groups and the Bolivian government had the common goal of making a dent in the worldwide deforestation that accounts for about 17 percent of greenhouse gas emissions each year.

The outcome of that experiment is fueling debate over a key element in international climate strategy.

While the Noel Kempff Mercado Climate Action Project has succeeded in keeping a biologically rich preserve of more than 6,000 square miles free from logging, it has fallen far short of its goal of reducing emissions.

The mix of pragmatism and idealism -- providing powerful financial incentives to encourage influential companies and poor countries to work together to slow global warming -- shows the complexity of a much-heralded approach that Democratic lawmakers and international negotiators are trying to write into law.

Preventing the clearing and burning of tropical forests, which help absorb carbon dioxide and provide habitat to an array of species, has become a critical objective for environmentalists.

"It doesn't matter who caused the problem. We are in it together," said Wangari Maathai, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work on tree planting in Africa and appealed to President Obama on the need to preserve forests overseas.

"If forests can be kept standing, it would be good for developed nations, it would be good for the developing world," she said.

Standing forests give the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases more affordable carbon credits under the cap-and-trade systems.

Without international offsets, pollution allowances would be 89 percent more expensive under the climate bill now before the U.S. senate.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency. Sixty percent of the international offsets would come from tropical forests.

"Including offsets from tropical forests in a climate bill is a key to affordability," said Nigel Purvis, executive director of the bipartisan Commission on Climate and Tropical Forests. "It would be geopolitically and economically foolish for us to push back on that."

The Greenpeace report notes that Kempff envisioned keeping 55 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere over 30 years but has lowered that expectation to 5.8 million.

The revised estimates do not take into account that logging may have moved to areas to the north, east and southwest of the project. And the report notes that the project's three corporate underwriters -- American Electric Power, BP America and PacifiCorp -- overestimated how much carbon the project kept from entering the atmosphere, telling the EPA it accounted for 7.4 million metric tons from 1997 to 2004.

Forestry experts said the world has learned from the Kempff project and has incorporated lessons from it in the policies that U.S. lawmakers and international negotiators are now shaping.

The sharp cut in verified emissions reductions came from satellite technology and better computer models that adjusted the baseline for what would have happened if the project had not gone ahead.

An experimental project in curbing climate change that began in 1997 is now being studied to see if lessons learned can contribute to shaping global climate policy.

The Norwegian government, which has pledged $1 billion between now and 2015 to conserve forests in Brazil, has proposed that any global climate deal in Copenhagen should spell out that rich nations pay to protect tropical forests and establish an offset program only once developing countries improve their governance and accounting systems.

Audun Rosland, a Norway climate negotiator, said his country wants stored forest carbon to be on top of what industrialized countries are already doing. "We need both deep cuts in developed countries and developing countries."

In the end, according to Center for Clean Air Policy President Ned Helme, both U.S. and international officials need to figure out how to preserve tropical forests as part of any domestic and international climate agreement.

"In terms of selling the deal, this is an important part of the deal, because so many countries benefit," Helme said.