Glasgow : Leaders of more than 100 nations representing over 85% of the world's forests will on Tuesday pledge to end deforestation by 2030 under the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forest and Land Use at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) being held at Glasgow, the United Kingdom prime minister's office informed in a press release.
UK prime minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday will host a COP26 Forests and Land Use event at the COP26 summit, staged from October 31 to November 12 to bring parties together to accelerate the steps towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
"In the biggest step forward in protecting the world's forests in a generation, more than 100 leaders will commit to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 at an event convened by the Prime Minister at COP26 today. The pledge is backed by almost PS14 billion ($19.2 billion) in public and private funding," the press release said.
The statement further added that "countries spanning from the northern forests of Canada and Russia to the tropical rainforests of Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo will endorse the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forest and Land Use," pointing that these nations represent 85% of the world's forests.
Halting and reversing deforestation is "one of the most important things the world can do to limit catastrophic global warming," since "23 per cent of global emissions come from land use activity, such as logging, deforestation and farming," the press release read.
Land clearance has increased in recent years as cocoa, soy and palm oil producers expand their export markets. Industrial development is largely suspected to be the reason behind wildfires that destroyed broad patches of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil between 2019 and August of this year.
With ANI Inputs
