At rare talks between Iran, the U.S. and other world powers, Iran agrees to allow weapons inspectors into its newly disclosed nuclear plant, and both sides agree to continued negotiations.

The People’s Republic of China celebrates its 60th anniversary by parading military personnel and equipment through downtown Beijing and hosting an evening gala complete with fireworks in Tienanmen Square.

Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, forms a new coalition which brings together Sunni and Shia parties to represent “all Iraqis.”

Former president and senior Iranian cleric, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani calls for the release of jailed post-election protesters. At his first Friday sermon since the presidential vote, Rafsanjani requests the end of media restraints and makes an appeal for a broadcast debate about the disputed vote.

Chechnya’s president Ramzan Kadyrov denies responsibility in the murder of Russian human-rights activist Natalia Estemirova. Estemirova was kidnapped outside of her home in the Chechen capital, Grozny, and her body was found on Wednesday in the neighboring region of Ingushetia. Oleg Orlov, the head of Memorial human rights group for which she had documented hundreds of cases of abuse in Chechnya, accused the president of her murder.

Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is acquitted of the hijacking charges that have legally kept him from running for public office. Sharif was convicted in 2000 of hijacking after attempting to prevent the landing of an aircraft in Pakistan carrying former president Pervez Musharraf, who was head of the military at the time. Sharif went into exhile in Saudi Arabia after being deposed in a coup in 1999.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir chooses not to attend the Smart Partnership Dialogue conference in Kampala, Uganda, after he was warned of the arrest warrant for seven charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity ordered by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague in March. The African Union, which includes Uganda, decided earlier this month not to cooperate with al-Bashir’s arrest warrant.

A nine-year inquiry into the Catholic Church in Ireland reports systemic child abuse over the past sixty years.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden faces protests by hard line Serbian Nationalists as he arrives in Belgrade.

Chad’s military forces gather on the Sudanese border in advance of a planned incursion to intercept rebels, Sudan threatens Chad troops with annihilation.

The Burmese government allows a limited number of reporters and diplomats to attend Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial for breaching the terms of her house arrest. The EU plans to pressure China for Suu Kyi’s release.

An Indonesian Air Force C-130 cargo airplane crashes with over 100 passengers, at least 93 are dead.

The International Committee of the Red Cross halts humanitarian aid activities to Sri Lanka as the Sri Lankan government arrests three Tamil doctors relied upon by the media for reports on civilian casualties.

43,000 Somalis flee Mogadishu as fighting between the Somali government and the opposition Al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam groups intensifies.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il — running unopposed — wins another five-year term in office. Kim attended the parliamentary session where he was re-”elected,” his first major public appearance since a suspected stroke last August,

Tens of thousands of protesters gather outside the parliament building in Tblisi to demand the resignation of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Indonesia marks 10 years of democracy with successful parliamentary elections.

At least 50 people are killed and more than 150 injured when a suicide bomb is detonated during Friday prays in a mosque in the Khyber region of Pakistan.

Dozens of people drown and thousands more await rescue from flooding caused by a burst dam near the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

The International Olympic Committee bans future international torch relays after the relay was marred by protests on the way to Beijing.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that the forestry sector now accounts for about 17% of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere. The REDD pilot participants hope to reduce greenhouse gas emissions both by using forest vegetation as a “carbon sink” to absorb excess amounts of carbon dioxide and by avoiding pollutants released during “slash and burn” clearing fires used to create fields for agriculture or livestock. The countries plan to employ local residents to monitor the forests’ health, thus providing economic benefits to the communities involved. Once an accounting method is agreed upon to determine how much carbon is being saved, REDD projects may be able to sell carbon credits to polluting nations to offset their emissions.

In 2008, WIDE ANGLE’s Burning Season reported on the attempts of carbon entrepreneur, Dorjee Sun, to protect Indonesia’s rainforests while making a profit for his investors.

Climate change is the “defining issue of our era,” according U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. But the question of how to slow global warming has stymied the international community and no consensus has emerged.

The Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in 1997, set targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases that cause global warming. To date, 182 countries have agreed to the terms — the U.S. is not one of them.

One of the primary mechanisms for reducing carbon pollution is a system of emissions trading. Countries that have signed the treaty are entitled to an assigned amount of emissions, and if they manage to use less, they can sell the excess to countries that have surpassed their limit on the new carbon market.

ABOUT THE FILM

Every hour in Indonesian rainforests, an area the size of 300 soccer fields is mowed down and burned. Often this clearing is done to make way for oil palm plantations. The resulting palm oil is used for cooking, cleaning and even as a biofuel. But the fires farmers set to clear their land have helped to make Indonesia the world’s third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide — exceeded only by the U.S. and China.

A 29-year-old Australian “green” entrepreneur named Dorjee Sun believes he has a solution to reduce those harmful greenhouse gas emissions. He has canvassed the world pitching the sale of Indonesia’s carbon credits to polluters in the West.

His business model would maintain the standing swaths of Indonesia’s rainforests by selling their carbon credits. Burning Season follows Dorjee Sun on a whirlwind trip into boardrooms around the world – from Starbucks to eBay to Merrill Lynch – as he tries to convince skeptical financiers that his proposal is viable.

To carry out his plan, local political leaders in Indonesia must also agree that their forests are worth more alive than dead. Small farmers like Achmadi, who makes a living by cutting down trees to plant oil palms, fear the layers of government officials will be the only profiteers from the carbon credit sale.

Burning Season kindles both sides of the climate divide and explores whether capitalism can step in where altruism has so far failed to succeed.

CIA World Factbook: Indonesia
Information on Indonesia’s demographics, geography and economy

Indonesia: Environmental Issues
Information on Indonesia’s environment from the Energy Information Administration, which provides official energy statistics for the U.S. government

Mongabay.com
Information about Indonesia’s rainforests from mongabay.com, a popular environmental news website

Climate Change

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
The official website of UNFCC, the U.N. body that created the Kyoto Protocol

Kyoto Protocol
Text of the Kyoto Protocol

U.N.’s Human Development Report on Fighting Climate Change
Information about climate change, including many tables and figures, from the U.N. Development Programme

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The official site of IPCC, the organization that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore

Council on Foreign Relations report: Confronting Climate Change: A Strategy for U.S. Foreign Policy
Written by a task force of the Council on Foreign Relations and chaired by former governors George Pataki and Tom Vilsack

Timeline of climate change politics in the U.S.
From PBS’s Frontline

Grist: Environmental News and Commentary
Popular online magazine offering in-depth reporting and opinion on environmental issues

Burning Season

The Burning Season movie website
Official website of the original Australian version of the film

The Carbon Pool
Dorjee Sun’s company