Today’s “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” the twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties plenary hall is based on green lighting, huge video screens and loudspeakers constantly heard the sound of birds chirping and leaves rustling. The calm speech and behavior of the delegates seemed to indicate that they had breathed cleaner air.
Meeting emcee and sustainability advocate Sandrine Dixson-Declève welcomes participants to the key forest and land use leaders at the 26th meeting of the Conference of the Parties on Tuesday Activity. She said: “Today will be a memorable day, and we are setting the tone for how to protect the lungs of the world.”
Next, a movie narrated by the famous British nature and environmental protection advocate Sir David Attenborough (David Attenborough) was shown on the screen.
Commentary: “By destroying forests, we are damaging biodiversity and our lives… Forests provide fresh water, clean the air we breathe, stimulate spiritual values, and provide us with food… The challenge we face now must be to stop destruction And began to restore the forest. This is a difficult task, and every country needs its own solution.”
His familiar voice echoed throughout the venue. His call to action spread to all corners of the venue.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson took the stage to announce that at least 110 countries representing 85% of the world‘s forest area have joined the key “Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use”, promising to stop and reverse deforestation by 2030.
He said: “Protecting our forests is not only a policy of action against climate change, but also to ensure a more prosperous future.”
Johnson emphasized that China, Russia and Brazil have also joined this commitment. He believes that the process of restoring forests may provide opportunities for job creation and at the same time.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Brazilian President Bolsonaro, as well as other leaders who were absent from the COP, all appeared in pre-recorded video messages supporting the pledge.
United Nations Secretary-General Guterres urged on his official Twitter account: “It is relatively easy to join the declaration. It is vital that this plan is implemented now for the sake of humanity and the planet.”
Declaration content
Through the “Declaration”, leaders of all countries pledged to strengthen joint efforts to protect forests and other terrestrial ecosystems, accelerate their restoration, and promote sustainable trade and development policies at the international and domestic levels.
The text also noted the empowerment of local communities, including indigenous peoples, who are often negatively affected by forest development and degradation.
The Declaration also aims to implement and redesign agricultural policies and programs to reduce hunger and benefit the environment.
Fundraising is also the key to this commitment. Leaders pledged to promote financial flows in line with international goals to reverse losses and degradation, while ensuring policies to accelerate the transition to a greener economy.
Over the past ten years, the amount of money flowing into destructive land-use practices has been about 40 times that of forest protection, conservation, and sustainable agriculture.
Pledges signed by more than 30 financial institutions aim to change this situation. These institutions manage more than $8.7 trillion in global assets. The pledge aims to move away from investment portfolios in the supply chain of agricultural commodities with high risks of deforestation and shift to sustainable production.
“Guilless Chocolate”
Indonesian President Joko and British Prime Minister Johnson announced that 28 countries have pledged to take a series of actions to achieve sustainable trade. These countries account for 75% of global trade in major forest-threatening products such as palm oil and cocoa.
Boris said: This can be called “guilt-free chocolate!” He pointed out that the “Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade Action Roadmap” is a new partnership between the governments of major producers and consumer countries, aimed at breaking The link between deforestation and agricultural commodities.
The roadmap will accelerate actions to stimulate the sustainability of the supply chain, support smallholder farmers’ participation in the market, increase the transparency of the supply chain, and promote new technologies and innovations.
Fundraising for the Congo Basin
There are other important news announced today. The co-sponsors of the 26th Conference of the Parties proposed a fundraising initiative for the Congo Basin. The initiative aims to raise 1.5 billion U.S. dollars to protect forests, peatlands and other important carbon storage in the area. Currently, more than 10 countries, the Bezos Earth Fund and the European Union have joined the initiative.
Gabon’s President Bongo declared: “The Congo Basin is the heart and lung of the African continent. If we do not maintain the stability of the basin, we will not be able to win the battle against climate change.”
British Prime Minister Boris stated that the initiative is also part of a new global forest financing commitment of more than US$12 billion.
He said: “This is the largest collective commitment of a public fund for climate action in history. Let us end this huge global massacre using chainsaws.”
UNRIC/Miranda Alexander-Webber
US President Biden delivered a speech at the 26th Climate Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
U.S. and Colombian commitments
Also at today’s event, US President Biden stated that the United States is committed to ensuring clean water supply, maintaining biodiversity, protecting indigenous communities, and reducing the risk of disease transmission.
Biden said that 20 million hectares of forest land is being restored, and the United States is announcing a new plan to support the cessation of deforestation and the restoration of carbon sinks.
He said: “We need to take this issue as seriously as we treat economic decarbonization. This is what we did in the United States.”
Biden added that the United States will mobilize billions of dollars and the goal is to support the restoration of 200 million hectares of forest by 2030, and this plan is only the first of its kind.
At the same time, Colombian President Duque pledged to protect 30% of the country’s territory from deforestation by 2022.
He said: “We cannot wait until 2030, we must act now to protect our forests.” This ambitious commitment he put forward at the 26th Conference of the Parties won enthusiastic applause.
Jeff Bezos’ pledge and other private sector actions
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said at the 26th Conference of the Parties, “Nature is beautiful, but it is also fragile. In July this year, when I took the Blue Origin into space, I remembered This. Someone told me that looking at the earth from space will change your perspective of observing the world. In fact, I am not fully prepared for the degree of truthfulness of this sentence.”
Through his Bezos Earth Fund, he pledged to provide another $2 billion in funding to help restore nature and transform the food system. In early September, the fund pledged another $1 billion.
Bezos said: “Will we work together in this conference hall to leave an improved natural world for our children and grandchildren? I know the answer is yes…. I look forward to working together on this important journey. “The philanthropist said.
UNRIC/Miranda Alexander-Webber
Jeff Bezos speaks at the 26th Climate Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
Three other major initiatives were launched on Tuesday:
The “Amazon, Cerrado and Chaco Initiative” (IFACC) will announce a US$3 billion investment to accelerate the practice of non-deforestation and non-deforestation of land in South America to grow soybeans and raise cattle.
The Natural Capital Investment Alliance (NCIA) of the Sustainable Market Initiative is an organization founded by Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, to promote private investment in natural capital. It announced 12 new members on the same day and plans to raise $10 billion in private capital by the end of 2022.
The initial $1 billion in public and private funds will be obtained through the “Accelerated Forest Financing and Emission Reduction Alliance”, which includes major companies such as Delta, PricewaterhouseCoopers, U.S. short-term rental platform Airbnb, and Unilever. This will provide funding for countries that successfully reduce emissions from deforestation, provided that these emissions reductions have been independently verified and confirmed. Funds can only be provided by companies that have committed to reducing emissions in their supply chains.
Financial Institutions
Nine multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, submitted a joint statement in support of all announced investments and transformations.
In this statement, they pledged to mainstream nature into their investments and policy dialogues with countries.
Indigenous leaders react
More than 1.6 billion people in the world depend on forests for their livelihoods. Indigenous peoples are the guardians of at least 36% of the world’s large and complete forests. Evidence shows that forests will be better protected and managed only when local people have the ability to manage forests.
During the event, several indigenous leaders from all over the world responded to the Glasgow Forest and Land Pledge.
Tuntiak Katak, deputy coordinator of the Amazon Indigenous Coordinating Organization, said, “We will look for concrete evidence of the transformation of capital investment. If the proposal is used to support land rights and 80% of indigenous and local communities When the proposal is implemented, we will see a dramatic reversal of the current trend of destroying our natural resources.”
He emphasized at the plenary session in Spanish, “We are ready to take action, we will work together, we will not drown…because we are all traveling in the same canoe in the basin.”