The challenge is clear: if tropical deforestation were a country, it would rank fourth, only behind China, the US, and India in emissions. However, the solution is even clearer: these same forests can provide 23% of the cost-effective climate mitigation needed before 2030, if the right economic incentives are in place.[1]
Despite numerous pledges, forest loss shows little sign of abating. The cost of protecting all forests at high-risk of deforestation by 2030 requires $130 billion in annual funding while existing financing is only $2-3 billion.[2] Bridging this gap will require public, private, and philanthropic funding on a scale and at a speed we have never seen before.
Part of the solution rests with the promise of financing from carbon credits for jurisdictional-scale forest conservation programs (JREDD+), which aims to reverse current economic incentives, so that forests are…
Read the full article originally published at blogs.edf.org.