Conservation groups hail Cop28 plans to protect nature | Cop28

Conservation groups have praised the inclusion of biodiversity and a 2030 global deforestation target in the UAE consensus resulting from Police 28along with positive wording about the role of indigenous communities.

Some hope the agreement could help to more closely link nature and climate, rather than treating the two as separate subjects. But many have expressed concern that lukewarm language on fossil fuel emissions will not control the global warming responsible for the erodibility of forests to drought, fire and disease, which threatens to lead carbon-rich ecosystems to become a source of the greenhouse gas emissions that the planet.

Under the agreement signed in Dubai on Wednesday, governments are required to consider the natural world and carbon stocks such as forests as they develop their next round of nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement. The new plans, which countries including the US and China have said they will produce, must take place before Cop30 in the Brazilian Amazon in 2025 and must be calibrated to limit global warming to 1.5C.

Despite progress in recognizing the importance of the natural world and nature-based solutions, divisions remain over how to fund nature conservation, with talks on carbon markets at Cop28 ending in failure.

The UAE consensus “underlines the importance of conserving, protecting and restoring nature and ecosystems in order to achieve the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement”. This will include “halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030, and other terrestrial and marine ecosystems that act as sinks and reservoirs of greenhouse gases and by conserving biodiversity”, in line with this decade’s UN biodiversity targets.

The biodiversity agreement, reached in Montreal last December, has 23 commitments, which include protecting 30% of the planet for nature by the end of the decade, reforming $500bn (£410bn) of environmentally damaging subsidies, and restoring 30% of the planet’s degraded ecosystems. Governments will have to consider those commitments in their new climate plans.

The UAE consensus also notes the need for more financial resources for nature and implementation based on “the best available science as well as indigenous people’s knowledge and local knowledge systems”.

Jennifer Morgan, the former executive director of Greenpeace who now heads the German climate delegation, praised the “big language” on nature and forests.

Claudio Angelo of the Brazilian Climate Observatory said it was the first time the 2030 target for deforestation had been included in a UN agreement, upgrading the voluntary language of the previous Glasgow Declaration on forests into “a binding commitment between 200 countries”.

Angelo was also encouraged by the open link to last year’s Kunming-Montreal global diversity framework. “It has potential because there is big money for biodiversity that can now be used for climate protection and vice versa,” he said. “The two conventions had to merge and now there is a pin for it.”

Jennifer Skene, policy manager for natural climate solutions at the Natural Resources Defense Council, was also positive. “The text’s emphasis on halting and reversing forest degradation, along with deforestation, by 2030 leaves no doubt about the urgency of global, multisectoral action to protect high-integrity forests in order to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, ” she said. “The international community is lifting the veil on industrial logging … creating a path for action on forest protection defined by equity and accountability.”

Toerris Jaeger, director of Rainforest Foundation Norway, was more cautious, saying the UAE consensus was a mixed bag. “The agreement gives a glimmer of hope with ambition to stop deforestation, but the slow progress on fossil fuels is a threat to the rainforest,” he said.

Recognition of the role of indigenous communities in protecting forests and combating the climate crisis was celebrated by Sonia Guajajara, the Prime Minister of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil. “It was the first time we had indigenous people participating directly in a dialogue with Brazilian negotiators,” she said on social media, reminding followers: “We are only 5% of the world’s population, but 82% of the world’s protected biodiversity is within indigenous areas.” Guajajara looked forward to Cop30, which will be held in the Amazonian city of Belém in 2025. “President Lula has said a lot that it is time for the Amazon to speak to the world. So, we are optimistic that this Cop will be decisive,” she said.

The negotiators had to overcome challenges from Bolivia, which happened one of the fastest deforesting nations on earth as the government endorses the expansion of soybeans, cattle, logging and mining. In closed sessions, Bolivia’s representative said his country and others in the developing bloc needed more economic support. “We cannot support goals to end deforestation in all countries as they reflect different circumstances,” he said. “Why should we achieve no deforestation without any financing?”

During the conference, there were also doubts about the role of carbon markets in forest protection and reforestation. Without transparency and clear guidelines, it was feared that polluters could claim credits of dubious value. This debate is expected to continue in future conferences.

This year, fears were raised about a new “scramble for Africa” ​​to Areas of forest larger than the UK were sold to a UAE firm in a carbon offset deal before Cop28. The mechanism was intended for use in country-to-country trade for the Paris Agreement. But talks collapsed without any agreement on carbon markets in Dubai, leaving their role uncertain.

Axel Michaelowa, a carbon markets expert at the University of Zurich, said the lack of agreement was “a disaster”, adding: “The Paris rules could become a benchmark for international quality in the carbon markets, but if we keep kicking the can down the road every year, at some point nobody will believe in it anymore. That means the carbon cowboys have another year to ride across the prairie.”

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