UN Climate Summit 2014 pledges to end forest loss by 2030

Governments, MNCs, civil society agree to cut the rate of forest loss to half by 2020

 
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By Aditya Misra
Published: Thursday 25 September 2014

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In a unique public-private partnership initiative announced at the UN Climate Summit 2014, in New York on September 24, multinational companies, governments, civil society and indigenous peoples have pledged to halve the rate of forest loss by 2020 and end it by 2030.

The New York Declaration on Forests is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 4.5 and 8.8 billion tonnes every year.

The Declaration was endorsed by the US, EU and other developed and developing countries. It also aims to restore over 350 million hectares of forest and agricultural land.

"The New York Declaration aims to reduce more climate pollution each year than the United States emits annually, and it doesn’t stop there. Forests are not only a critical part of the climate solution - the actions agreed today will reduce poverty, enhance food security, improve the rule of law, secure the rights of indigenous peoples and benefit communities around the world,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, according to a news release published on the United Nations Environment Programme website. 

A few announcements made in support of the Declaration
  1. Norway announced US $100 million to support indigenous peoples as part of its total pledge of $3 billion for climate and forest purposes till 2020.
  2. Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom pledged to join up to 20 new programmes in the next couple of years to pay countries for reduced deforestation rates. They also said that they would push for large-scale economic incentives as part of the Paris climate talks in 2015.
  3. Peru and Liberia announced new forest policies which could get Peru up to US $300 million and Liberia up to US $150 funding from Norway.
  4. Three of the world’s largest palm oil companies - Wilmar, Golden Agri-Resources and Cargill—committed to work together on implementation of the Declaration
  5. Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Uganda and various other countries are set to make national pledges to restore over 30 million hectares of degraded lands
  6. he Consumer Goods Forum, a coalition of 400 companies with combined sales over US $3 trillion, called on governments to pass a legally binding climate deal in Paris next year that includes large-scale payments to countries that reduce deforestation.               

New York declaration on forests: action statements and action plans

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