Norway hopes to unlock climate cash to fight tropical deforestation

Norway has announced $1bn in aid to protect forests in Indonesia and hopes to forge a partnership to fight climate change

Norway hopes to boost aid to fight tropical deforestation at a conference tomorrow, and to set in motion a partnership to unlock cash pledged at the Copenhagen summit to help slow climate change.

Norway says developed nations have promised $500m (£347m) to fight deforestation by 2012 on top of $3.5bn agreed at Copenhagen, and new pledges at the conference may bring the total aid closer to $5bn.

Fifty nations will take part in the Oslo meeting, to be attended by Britain's Prince Charles and the financier George Soros, to forge a "partnership" between donors and countries from the Amazon to Congo basins for protecting forests.

Plants soak up carbon dioxide as they grow, helping to curb the increasing rise in carbon levels.

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