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An end to deforestation is to be put in place by 2030, more than 100 countries pledged at the climate summit in Glasgow. Among them is Brazil with President Bolsonaro. Environmentalists have a clear opinion on the new pledge.
At the world climate summit in Glasgow, more than 100 countries pledged to stop the destruction of forests and other landscapes by 2030. The British government, which is chairing the UN conference, made the announcement late Monday night. Climate activists criticized the target date as too late.
The countries involved, including Germany and the entire EU, represent 85 percent of the world’s forest cover, or about 34 million square kilometers, according to the British figures. They include the countries with the largest forests of all, i.e. Canada, Russia, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia as well as China, Norway and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Accordingly, around 12 billion U.S. dollars (around 10.3 billion euros) in public funds will be mobilized for the project by 2025. In addition, there will be 7.2 billion U.S. dollars in private investment.
Huge losses of land every day
Forests are considered the lungs of our planet, absorbing about one-third of the CO2 emissions emitted by humans each year. But they are shrinking alarmingly, the release added, with an area equivalent to about 27 soccer fields lost every minute. According to data from the World Resources Institute, forest cover declined by 258,000 square kilometers in 2020, an area larger than that of conference host Britain.
According to speech text circulated in advance, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called forests “cathedrals of nature” and declared, “They are essential to our survival.” With the adoption of the Self-Commitment on Forest Conservation scheduled for this Tuesday, he said, humanity has a chance to move from being “conquerors” to guardians of nature.
Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, said his country is blessed with abundant rainforests, according to the release. He said his government is committed to protecting it as a “natural asset.”
Not much has happened so far
The British government called the effort “unprecedented.” However, back in 2014, participants at a U.N. climate meeting in New York announced plans to halve the rate of deforestation by 2020 and halt deforestation by 2030.
Yet industrial-scale deforestation continues unabated, not least in the Amazon rainforest under the government of Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro. Since he took office in January 2019, the Brazilian Amazon has lost around 10,000 square kilometers of tree cover annually. In the previous ten years, the annual average was around 6500 square kilometers.
: source: faz.net/picture:pixabay.com
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