There are discussions about the money that is needed to achieve this and other proposed objectives.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference 2021 (COP26) continues to take place in Glasgow, United Kingdom and It seems that this Tuesday a first triumph was noted when announcing an agreement between 110 countries, including Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica, to stop deforestation in 2030, which would improve the effectiveness of forests as carbon sinks in the fight against climate change.
In a ceremony with the staff of international leaders in Glasgow (Scotland), among them the US president, Joe Biden, and the Colombian, Iván Duque, the signing of the States they represent was celebrated. 85% of the global forest from a declaration committing to stop and reverse logging this decade, in exchange for funding of $ 19.2 billion in public and private funds.
Although it considered the announcement “positive”, the Coalition of Nations with Tropical Forests, which represents 52 countries, many of them Latin American, told Efe that this money is very insufficient to compensate for the loss of income derived from deforestation, on which these territories depend.
Opening the “Forests and Land” event, the British Prime Minister and host of COP26, Boris Johnson, stressed that “climate change and biodiversity are two sides of the same coin”, so that while fighting one, it is must protect the other.
Biden said for his part that deforestation must be tackled “with the same serious process applied to decarbonize the economy,” since, he pointed out, “forests can help reduce emissions by more than a third.”
Duque confirmed his government’s commitment to declare 30% of Colombia a protected area by 2022, long before the general goal of 2030, “Because we must act now”, while the president of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, explained that his Executive already finances indigenous peoples “to protect the forests” that capture CO2.
The great commitment to reforestation announced today has also been signed by Indonesia, Norway, Australia, China, Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Turkey, Uruguay and the European Union.
Skepticism in various countries
Coalition of Nations with Tropical Forests Director Kevin Conrad from Papua New Guinea told Efe that “it is positive” that “someone like Boris Johnson talks about trees”, but the reality is that the financing offered “is a drop in the middle of the ocean” compared to what is needed to discourage the felling of trees for agriculture.
According to their data, to stop and reverse deforestation in 2030, in order to achieve the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees this century, it takes $ 100 billion annually for ten years to be shared among all nations. with tropical forests.
The coalition also questions this announcement when there is already in the 2015 Paris Agreement against climate change a mechanism to compensate states that contribute to reducing emissions by preserving their forests, which is barely applied.
At the ceremony on Tuesday, representatives of indigenous peoples claimed their right to manage their lands with respect for nature and called for an end to the devastation caused by economic interests.
“Do not kill us, do not kill us,” said Tuntiak Katan, son of the Shuar people of the Ecuadorian Amazon, who urged “to value and support the knowledge and science of indigenous peoples” as well as their contribution to reducing gas harmful.
According to data from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), forests are home to 60,000 different species of trees, 80% of amphibian species, 75% of bird species and 68% of mammal species from the earth.
But over the past 13 years, more than 43 million hectares of groves have been devastated in these ecosystems, an area comparable to the US state of California.
Other reactions to the summit
Meanwhile, Johnson also claimed that “some progress” had been made in the early days of the summit, but was “cautiously optimistic” about the event’s eventual success.
After two days in which the leaders of 120 countries have put their starting positions on the table, there are still about two weeks left for national delegations to shape the details of their final commitments.
Johnson highlighted that 90% of the world economy is already moving “in the direction” of achieving net zero carbon emissions and praised as one of the greatest achievements of the summit so far the agreement to reverse the destruction of forests signed by more than one 100 countries, representing 85% of the planet’s forest mass.
Asked about the lack of new commitments from China at this summit and about India’s goal of reaching zero emissions by 2070, two decades after the goal set by the UN, the British president assured that both countries have taken steps in the right direction. (I)
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