At the 170-nation climate talks in Bonn, proposals are being discussed to extend a UN program that helps developing nations build nuclear power plants in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This option is a controversial one, as it involves rich nations investing in projects like wind farms in India or hydropower dams in Peru and receiving credit for reducing emissions in their own countries. Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, stated that nuclear energy aid is being considered along with other suggestions such as carbon capture and storage from coal-fired power plants, and increasing efforts to promote forestation to absorb carbon dioxide. Numerous countries and environmentalists are against the idea of extending the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to incorporate nuclear energy. The CDM is a component of the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions until 2012. According to Martin Hiller from the WWF conservation group, nuclear power is not considered as the future of energy and therefore should not be included in the CDM. He believes that the CDM should focus on promoting renewable energy sources instead. He expressed concerns about the dangers of nuclear power, despite its minimal greenhouse gas emissions compared to burning coal, oil, and gas. Discussions in Bonn, part of negotiations for a new long-term U.N. climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, will not include decisions on restructuring the CDM. Many delegates do not support including nuclear power in the CDM. There is uncertainty about whether nuclear power should be considered as an alternative to fossil fuels in the effort to combat rising temperatures and their associated consequences. De Boer estimated that the CDM could provide up to $100 billion annually to developing nations in the future if industrialized countries agreed to significant emissions cuts and allocated half of their reductions to foreign countries. That was also assuming that credits for preventing greenhouse gas emissions would be around $10 per tonne. Currently, the CDM has approved or is considering projects that would prevent a total of 2.7 billion tonnes of emissions by 2012, which is roughly equal to the annual emissions of Japan, Germany, and Britain combined. De Boer dismissed criticisms that the CDM was flawed, such as accusations of benefiting carbon traders and companies in China that destroy HFC 23, a potent greenhouse gas produced during refrigerant manufacturing. He argued that finding a way to profitably eliminate a potent greenhouse gas is not unethical, as it demonstrates the success of creating a market mechanism. Additional criticisms of the program center around whether the funding allocated has actually resulted in reductions of emissions, or if these reductions would have occurred regardless due to preexisting government support for wind power in countries like China and India.