COP26 deforestation deal

In the first major deal to be announced at the UN COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, some 110 countries promised to end and reverse deforestation by 2030, pledging some $19.2bn of public and private funds. The deal represents over 85% of the world’s forests, an area of over 13mn sq miles.

Although experts welcomed the announcement, they warned that a previous pledge in 2014, which had an interim target of halving deforestation by 2020, had failed to slow deforestation and that the latest commitments needed to be delivered on.

However, a key difference is the new plan has been signed by several countries that were missing last time, including those with the worst levels of deforestation, such as Brazil.

According to the UK government, forests absorb around one-third of the global CO₂ released from burning fossil fuels every year, but we are losing them at an alarming rate, with an area of forest the size of 27 football pitches lost every minute.

In addition, governments representing 75% of global trade in key commodities that can threaten forests – such as palm oil, cocoa and soya – also signed up to a new Forests, Agriculture and Commodity Trade (FACT) Statement. The 28 governments are committing to a common set of actions to deliver sustainable trade and reduce pressure on forests, including support for smallholder farmers and improving the transparency of supply chains. Currently almost a quarter (23%) of global emissions come from land use activity, such as logging, deforestation and farming.