OVER 100 WORLD LEADERS SIGN DECLARATION TO END DEFORESTATION BY 2030

Tue 02 November 2021:

More than 100 world leaders are set to sign the first major pact of COP26 later today (2 November), pledging to eliminate deforestation by 2030.

Leaders representing over 85% of the world’s forests will make a historic pledge to cease and reverse deforestation and land degradation.

The pact has been signed by the majority of countries that border the Amazon Rainforest, the world’s largest forest. Only Bolivia and Venezuela have refused to sign the pledge, while Brazil (which contains the majority of the Amazon) has done so.

Under the agreement, 12 countries also pledged to spend $12 billion in public funds between 2021 and 2025 to protect and restore forests and an additional $7.2 billion will be provided by private investors.

The announcement of the Leader’s Declaration on Forests and Land Use came on the first day of the official opening of the leaders’ summit of the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which will run until Nov. 12.

This is set to be the biggest measure ever taken to preserve the world’s forests. The countries committing to the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forest and Land Use represent over 33.7 million square kilometres of forests.

The main agenda is to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages by the end of the century. The actions to reduce emissions need to start now to be able cut them by 50% by 2030 to reach the target.

Nearly €16.5 billion in public (€10.3 billion) and private (€6.24 billion) funds are backing the plan. The public funds will be donated by 12 countries, between 2021 and 2025.

More than 30 financial organizations, including Aviva, Schroders, and Axa, are providing private sector capital. These businesses will also pledge to stop deforestation-related operations.

The funds will be used to support projects in underdeveloped countries, including helping to repair damaged land, combat wildfires, and assist Indigenous populations.

In a statement on the declaration, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) welcomed the commitments and said the declaration is well aligned with the pledge by several of these governments to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 for sustainable development.

“Forests provide ecosystem services that are critical to human, economic and social well-being, yet they continue to disappear at alarming rates. The commitment by over 100 world leaders to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030 is welcome in that it acknowledges the important value of forests and other natural ecosystems,” Fran Price, Global Forest Practice Lead at WWF, said in a statement.

Protecting forests matters

Forests absorb over a third of global CO2 emissions, but every minute, we lose an area the size of 27 football fields.

Land-use activities such as logging, deforestation, and farming account for about a quarter of world emissions (23%). This is why preserving existing forests is more vital than planting new ones.

Mitigating forestry loss and mitigating land degradation are critical for controlling catastrophic levels of global warming while also protecting the futures of the 1.6 billion people (almost a quarter of the world’s population) who rely on forests for their livelihoods.

Despite the pledges, climate activists are protesting and demanding world leaders to face the climate emergency.