Brazil will push for more green finance to help reverse deforestation when it hosts COP30 later this year – marking 20 years since the Kyoto Protocol and 10 years since the adoption of the Paris Agreement – and will argue that forests provide the best ‘carbon sink’ to tackle global warming.
“Forests can buy us time in climate action in our rapidly closing window of opportunity,” according to Ambassador Andre Correa do Lago, who was yesterday appointed by Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as president-designate for the summit: “Tapping into such an outstanding potential requires enhanced global support and investment through financial resources, technology transfer, and capacity-building.”
“When we get together in the Brazilian Amazon in November, we must listen to the latest science and re-evaluate the extraordinary role already played by forests and the people who preserve and rely on them,” Mr do Lago said. “If we reverse deforestation and recover what has been lost, we can unlock massive removals of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere while bringing ecosystems back to life.”
“As the COP comes to the Amazon, forests will naturally be a central topic. Building on the 2023 Amazon Summit outcomes, the “United for our Forests” initiative will stimulate the debate on forests’ role in the climate fight. Other themes will include energy, cities, and technology and innovation.”
Brazil led a push to establish a $250B Tropical Forest Fund during COP28.
The push comes after Brazil led a push during COP28 to establish a $250 billion “megafund” that would use government and private sector funds to give twelve countries—in Latin America, the Congo, and Southeast Asia—the capacity to meet minimum thresholds for limiting deforestation. The countries, which include 80% of the world’s tropical forests, were behind Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s push for the rich “to pay money not only to take care of canopy but to take care of the people who live under it.”
And unlike existing schemes, the fund would not value forest conservation in terms of carbon “since protecting forests would prevent further greenhouse gas emissions rather than absorbing additional carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere.” Instead, the value is linked to measuring forest area in hectares or units of 0.01 square kilometres.
“Ever since Brazil received the trust of Latin America and the Caribbean as our region’s COP host, the path to COP30 has been successfully paved by the COP28 and COP29 Emirati and Azerbaijani presidencies,” Mr do Lago said. “In 2023, under Emirati leadership in Dubai, we adopted the UAE Consensus, which included a breakthrough on loss and damage, following the Egyptian COP27 leadership, and the conclusion of the first global stocktake (GST).”
“The GST launched global calls for efforts to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030 and accelerate the global energy transition, including by tripling renewable energy capacity globally, doubling the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements, and transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a just, orderly, and equitable manner.”
“Having COP28 as a stepping stone and then under the Azerbaijani leadership of COP29, we finally completed 2024 the Paris “Rulebook” by finalizing the rules under Article 6. We further adopted the “Baku Climate Unity Pact,” which includes the cornerstone decision around the new collective quantified goal on climate finance (NCQG).”
“The incoming COP30 presidency looks forward to working with the COP29 presidency in guiding the “Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3T” to scale up climate finance to developing country Parties. Together, we will produce a report summarizing our work by COP30.”
“The “Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3T” must serve as a fulcrum for leveraging finance to low-carbon and climate-resilience pathways in developing countries, recalling that IPCC’s alerts on the urgency of climate action are centred on findings that finance, technology, and international cooperation are critical enablers for accelerated climate action. Experts are clear: we only have a few years. If climate goals are to be achieved, adaptation and mitigation financing must be increased manifold.“
- For more information, download the First Letter from the President of COP30, Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago.
