News

Brazil to Present Forest Financing as Quick Climate Change Solution at COP30

Sponsors

Brazil will push for more funding to reverse deforestation when it hosts the United Nations climate talks later this year, arguing that natural carbon sinks can provide a buffer against the slow progress in curbing global warming.

“Forests can buy us time to act on climate change in this rapidly closing window of opportunity,” wrote Andre Correa do Lago, the summit’s designated president, known as COP30, in an open letter published Monday. “Harnessing such extraordinary potential requires greater global support and investment.”

Negotiators will gather in the Amazonian city of Belém in November, a decade after the historic Paris Agreement, where countries first agreed to limit global warming. The future of international climate diplomacy has been cast into doubt by President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the pact for a second time.

Outlining its plans for its COP30 presidency, Brazil aims not only to counter deforestation but also to increase climate financing and elevate Indigenous voices in an attempt to prove that multilateralism can still work amid the U.S. withdrawal.

Do Lago acknowledged the “sadness and outrage” felt by those fearing a setback in climate action and called on world leaders to uphold their commitments to keep global temperature rises ideally at 1.5°C (and well below 2°C) above pre-industrial levels. Countries are expected to present updated plans on how to meet that goal ahead of the summit, after most nations missed the February deadline set under the Paris Agreement.

Temperatures rise

Global warming already exceeded 1.5°C annually for the first time last year, and temperatures will continue to rise unless drastic measures are taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Forests, which absorb billions of tons of carbon dioxide each year, are considered essential in the fight against climate change.

COP30 “will take place at the epicenter of the climate crisis and will be the first held in the Amazon,” said do Lago, noting that the vital ecosystem now risks reaching an irreversible tipping point.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made combating Amazon destruction a priority when he took office in early 2023. The country reduced deforestation rates by 50% that year and achieved further progress in 2024, said Marina Silva, the country’s Environment Minister last year, citing government data.

Still, deforestation has been increasing globally as trees are cleared for agriculture and mining or burned in increasingly severe wildfires.

“To confront reality and counter pessimism, cynicism, and denial, COP30 must be a moment of hope and possibility through action—never paralysis and fragmentation,” stated do Lago.

Adaptation

Last year, climate negotiators agreed that developed countries would provide developing nations with $300 billion annually by 2035 to help them transition and adapt to climate change. However, the credibility of that pledge is already being questioned with Trump’s exit from the Paris Agreement and cuts to international aid. In Europe, countries are choosing to massively increase defense spending at the expense of international development programs.

A key challenge will be proving that funding is still available for developing countries’ climate plans. Alongside Azerbaijan, host of COP29, Brazil will draft a report outlining how to fulfill another commitment made last year: mobilizing $1.3 trillion in climate financing from private sources for poor countries, according to the letter.

Source:Agribusiness