In the first major agreement of the COP26 Climate Summit, 110 world leaders promised to reverse the effect as well as end deforestation by the year 2030. Called the Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use, this commitment includes $ 12 billion in public funding and $ 7.2 billion in private investment from both private and public funding. Deforestation was not slowed down at all in early 2014 transactions.
Highlights
The Declaration correlates sustainable production and consumption, and infrastructure development to achieve the goals for climate, land use, biodiversity as well as sustainable development nationally and globally. This declaration acknowledge the need for further transformative measures in the field of trade, finance as well as investment and to provide support for smallholders, indigenous peoples and communities that depend on forests for their livelihoods and play an important role in management. This declaration also seeks to accomplish balanced anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions with sink removal, adapting to climate change and other ecosystem services.
Signatories of the declaration
The Declaration has more than 105 signatories, including the United Kingdom, the United States, China and Russia. These countries make up 75% of world trade and 85% of the world’s forests and use important raw materials that can threaten forests, such as palm oil, soybeans and cocoa. They also promised $ 12 billion in public funding from 2022. This agreement reaffirms its respective commitments to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Convention, and the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention to Combat Desertification, and the Sustainable Development Goals as well as other related initiatives.
Objectives
Protect terrestrial ecosystems and forests as well as accelerate their recovery. Promote international and domestic trade and development policies that promote sustainable development and the production and consumption of sustainable raw materials. Reduce vulnerability, improve rural livelihoods, and build resilience including empowering communities. Recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples, developing profitable and sustainable agriculture and recognizing the diverse values ??of forests. Reaffirm international financial commitments and increasing investment and funding from a variety of public and private sources.
India?s Stand on this declaration
India, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa and Saudi Arabia are the only G20 member countries that have not signed the Declaration.
This declaration links trade with climate change and forest issues. Trade falls under the World Trade Organization and should not fall under the Declaration of Climate Change. India and others demanded that the word “trade” be removed, but the request was not accepted. That’s why they didn’t sign the declaration. The issue of deforestation in India is fiercely contested. The government has repeatedly stated that India’s forest and tree coverage has increased in recent years. But environmentalists have long pointed out that governments are busy undermining existing environmental protection measures, opening them up to mining and other infrastructure projects that will forever change forests, wildlife and the people around them.
