Brazil is pushing to create a $250 billion “megafund” and wants to use funds from global governments and the private sector to give to tropical countries meeting minimum thresholds for limiting deforestation.
The fund, which Wood Central reported last week, is now known as the “Tropical Forests Forever” and would see a reduction in funding should deforestation increase.
Proposed as part of a panel at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai last night, Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva and Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said the fund is capitalising on the interest in nature-based solutions for addressing climate change.
Wood Central understands that Brazil is the primary driver of the fund but is supported by twelve countries representing the Amazon, Congo Basin and Southeast Asia.
The countries, which include more than 80% of the world’s tropical forests, are behind a push by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for the rich “to pay money not only to take care of canopy but to take care of the people who live under it.”
In August, the countries signed a pact known as “United for Our Forests,” pushing for wealthier countries to do more to assist poorer countries in transitioning to a green economy.
“It’s a conceptual proposal to create a fund to help conserve tropical forests around the world…in 80 countries,” according to Brazil’s top climate diplomat, Andre Correa do Lago, at COP28.
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.
Establishing a new fund would be in conjunction with the US $100B “Loss and Damage Fund” committed by wealthier countries as part of the Paris Climate Agreement.
On Friday, Wood Central reported that more than $420m had been pledged by some of the world’s wealthiest countries to assist in setting up the fund – including the UAE, Germany, the UK, the USA and Japan.
The loss and damage fund refers to the impact of climate-induced events on economies, infrastructures, and societies. Small island states have been rallying for dedicated funding for years, and significant nations agreed to do so at COP28 as part of the climate discussions in Dubai.
It also coincides with new research, which suggests more than 6.6 million hectares of forest will be lost to deforestation in 2022, an increase of 4% compared to 2021.
According to its most recent assessment, “Off Track and Falling Behind”, it claims the rate of deforestation was “21% higher than needed to eliminate deforestation by 2030.”
For the first time, the report offers a comprehensive blueprint for saving forests, “defining for the first time the pathways to stop destroying forests, to meet global commitments and bring our forests back to life,” according to co-author Mary Gagen from the WWF-UK.
Earlier this year, new research from the University of Maryland reported that an area of tropical forest the size of Switzerland was lost last year as tree losses surged.
