The first agreement in COP26 to end deforestation

London, Thanassis Gavos

Leaders of more than a hundred countries attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, COP26, have reached an agreement to end deforestation and reforestation.

The so-called Declaration on Forests and Land Use will be signed by the leaders and representatives of countries on Tuesday, including Brazil, where every year more and more areas of the Amazon rainforest are destroyed.

The countries that will co-sign the agreement cover about 85% of the world’s forests and include the USA, Canada, Russia and Indonesia, ie countries with huge forest areas but also a serious problem in terms of logging and deforestation. The agreement is also signed by Greece.

A commitment of $ 19.2 billion by 2025 in public and private money will be made to end deforestation.

At the signing ceremony, along with US President Joe Biden and Prince Charles of Wales, among others, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will speak of a “landmark agreement” that will protect these “cathedrals of nature that are the lungs”. of our planet “.

However, experts such as UCL Professor Simon Lewis warn that a similar agreement, even with fewer countries, was reached in 2014, without being able to reduce deforestation to a minimum.

The reactions to the commitments announced by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi from Glasgow are mixed. He said India would achieve zero emissions by 2070. This is the first time the world’s third-largest polluter has made such a commitment, but it is 20 years away from the ‘net zero’ target of 2050 set by scientists aim to contain the rise in global temperature to one and a half degrees Celsius.