If the world loves forests, it should put a price on their carbon
THE WORLD'S leaders may quail at extinguishing coal-fired plants or raising petrol prices, but they can be relied upon to embrace one ally in the fight against climate change: the tree. For all his claims that climate change was a hoax, even Donald Trump, as president, championed an initiative to plant a trillion trees. So there is cause for scepticism about the pact, announced at the Glasgow climate summit this week, to put an end to deforestation before the decade is out.
The world has seen similar non-binding declarations before. In 2014, governments, companies and non-governmental organisations committed to halving deforestation by 2020 and ending it by 2030, under the New York declaration on forests. The first target was missed, the second looks to be a stretch. And those trillion trees remain an achievement chiefly of alliteration. Nevertheless, this week’s announcements significantly improve on previous efforts.
This time, Brazil and Indonesia have signed on (though India has not). States have promised to stump up cash to protect and restore forests, including in the Congo basin, and recognised that indigenous people are best-placed to care for the forests they live in. At least as significant is the commitment from the private sector, including large financial institutions, to root deforestation out of their supply chains and portfolios.
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