GLASGOW, Nov 2 – Leaders of more than 100 countries at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) here today pledged their commitment to work together to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 while delivering sustainable development and promoting an inclusive rural transformation.
Under The Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use, they reaffirmed their respective commitments, collective and individual, to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the Sustainable Development Goals; and other relevant initiatives.
They took note of the critical and interdependent roles of forests of all types, biodiversity and sustainable land use in enabling the world to meet its sustainable development goals; to help achieve a balance between anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and removal by sinks; to adapt to climate change; and to maintain other ecosystem services.
The full text of the declaration was made available at the official website of the COP 26.
The leaders also reaffirmed their commitments to sustainable land use, and to the conservation, protection, sustainable management and restoration of forests, and other terrestrial ecosystems.
“Recognise that to meet our land use, climate, biodiversity and sustainable development goals, both globally and nationally, will require transformative further action in the interconnected areas of sustainable production and consumption; infrastructure development; trade; finance and investment; and support for smallholders, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities, who depend on forests for their livelihoods and have a key role in their stewardship.”
The leaders also pledged to strengthen their efforts to:
- Conserve forests and other terrestrial ecosystems and accelerate their restoration;
- Facilitate trade and development policies, internationally and domestically, that promote sustainable development, and sustainable commodity production and consumption, that work to countries’ mutual benefit, and that do not drive deforestation and land degradation;
- Reduce vulnerability, build resilience and enhance rural livelihoods, including through empowering communities, the development of profitable, sustainable agriculture, and recognition of the multiple values of forests, while recognising the rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as local communities, in accordance with relevant national legislation and international instruments, as appropriate;
- Implement and, if necessary, redesign agricultural policies and programmes to incentivise sustainable agriculture, promote food security, and benefit the environment;
- Reaffirm international financial commitments and significantly increase finance and investment from a wide variety of public and private sources, while also improving its effectiveness and accessibility, to enable sustainable agriculture, sustainable forest management, forest conservation and restoration, and support for Indigenous Peoples and local communities;
- Facilitate the alignment of financial flows with international goals to reverse forest loss and degradation, while ensuring robust policies and systems are in place to accelerate the transition to an economy that is resilient and advances forest, sustainable land use, biodiversity and climate goals.
They finally called on other global leaders to join forces in a sustainable land use transition.
“This is essential to meeting the Paris Agreement goals, including reducing vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C, noting that the science shows further acceleration of efforts is needed if we are to collectively keep 1.5°C within reach.”
As for finances, 12 donor countries pledged to provide $12 billion (£8.75 billion) of public climate finance from 2021 to 2025 to a new Global Forest Finance Pledge to support action in developing countries, including restoring degraded land, tackling wildfires and advancing the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
In addition, 12 country and philanthropic donors pledged at least $1.5 billion to protect the forests of the Congo Basin. This is the area home to the second-largest tropical rainforest in the world, which is critically important to global efforts to address climate change as well as to sustainable development in the region.
14 country and philanthropic donors also pledged at least $1.7 billion from 2021 to 2025 to advance Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ forest tenure rights and support their role as guardians of forests and nature.
The following countries have signed the Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use :
1 Albania
2 Andorra
3 Angola
4 Armenia
5 Australia
6 Austria
7 Belgium
8 Belize
9 Bhutan
10 Bolivia
11 Bosnia and Herzegovina
12 Botswana
13 Brazil
14 Bulgaria
15 Cameroon
16 Canada
17 Chile
18 China
19 Colombia
20 Costa Rica
21 Cote D’Ivoire
22 Cyprus
23 Denmark
24 Dominican Republic
25 Democratic Republic of the Congo
26 European Commission on behalf of the European Union
27 Ecuador
28 Estonia
29 Fiji
30 Finland
31 France
32 Gabon
33 Germany
34 Ghana
35 Greece
36 Grenada
37 Guatemala
38 Guinea Bissau
39 Guyana
40 Honduras
41 Iceland
42 Indonesia
43 Ireland
44 Israel
45 Italy
46 Japan
47 Kazakhstan
48 Kenya
49 Kyrgyzstan
50 Latvia
51 Liberia
52 Liechtenstein
53 Lithuania
54 Luxembourg
55 Madagascar
56 Malawi
57 Mali
58 Malta
59 Mauritius
60 Monaco
61 Mongolia
62 Montenegro
63 Morocco
64 Mozambique
65 Nepal
66 Netherlands
67 New Zealand
68 Niger
69 Nigeria
70 North Macedonia
71 Norway
72 Pakistan
73 Panama
74 Papua New Guinea
75 Peru
76 Poland
77 Portugal
78 Republic of Congo
79 Romania
80 Russia
81 Saint Lucia
82 Samoa
83 San Marino
84 Seychelles
85 Sierra Leone
86 Slovakia
87 Slovenia
88 South Korea
89 Spain
90 Sri Lanka
91 Suriname
92 Sweden
93 Switzerland
94 Tanzania
95 Togo
96 Turkey
97 United Arab Emirates
98 Ukraine
99 Uruguay
100 United Kingdom
101 USA
102 Vanuatu
103 Vietnam
104 Zambia
105 Zimbabwe
