UN says forests should form key plank of COP30

UN says forests should form key plank of COP30
By Robin MILLARD
Geneva (AFP) Nov 5, 2025

The United Nations warned Wednesday that climate change poses a threat to the world's northern forests, saying it was putting the planet's most powerful natural defence at serious risk.

The UNECE regional agency urged the forthcoming COP30 climate summit to put forest resilience at the centre of efforts to combat global warming.

"The forests of the northern hemisphere are of crucial importance when it comes to climate," said Paola Deda, UNECE's forests division director.

"Over the years, the attention to forests in COPs has been lost. The technicalities of the discussion have taken over," she told a press conference in Geneva.

"You cannot talk about climate solutions, mitigation and adaptation without talking about forests."

Some 54 percent of the world's forests are in only five countries: Brazil, China, Canada, Russia and the United States, with the latter three in the UNECE region, and Russia having the biggest forest area of all.

UNECE covers 56 countries across Europe, North America, the Caucasus and central Asia.

Its 2025 Forest Profile is a five-yearly overview that measures and monitors the ecological, economic and socioeconomic condition of the region's forests, to inform policy.

Forests cover 4.14 billion hectares (10.23 billion acres), or around a third of the world's land surface, of which 42.5 percent is in the UNECE area.

Half of the forest loss in the past 10,000 years happened since 1900, the report said.

- 'Tipping point' -

Although the world's forest area has shrunk by 203 million hectares since 1990, in the UNECE region it has grown by around 60 million hectares -- an area roughly as big as France.

However, these gains "are now being jeopardised by record wildfires, pests, and an escalating climate-driven crisis", UNECE warned.

It said the region's forests were growing increasingly vulnerable to such threats.

The report said wildfires had become more severe and more common, fuelled by rising temperatures and drier conditions, while insect outbreaks have severely damaged millions of hectares of forests.

"What we have achieved over the last three decades is now at serious risk from the climate emergency," UNECE chief Tatiana Molcean said in a statement.

"We cannot afford to lose the planet's most powerful natural defence. The rising tide of wildfires and drought is pushing our forests past a critical tipping point."

Leaders at the COP30 UN climate summit in Belem, Brazil, which runs from November 10 to 21, "must recognise that forest protection... is a cornerstone of global carbon security," said Molcean.

- Forest management -

Boreal forests -- roughly in a ring around the Arctic Circle, notably in Russia and Canada -- cover 9.3 percent of the planet's land surface.

They contain about 32 percent of global terrestrial carbon stocks, with boreal soils holding "vast amounts of carbon", said UNECE.

However, "they are highly sensitive to climate impacts, including rising temperatures, thawing permafrost and wildfires", it said.

The fear is that the region's vast forests -- currently a carbon sink -- could become a net source of emissions.

Kathy Abusow, president of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, said: "There is a solution: if we can manage our forests in climate-informed ways", such as changing the tree species to reflect the new environmental conditions.

UNECE stressed the need for fire prevention, pest management and forest restoration. Thinning out forests and clearing out deadwood can also help make them less vulnerable to catastrophic wildfires that become major carbon emitters.

Pay to protect: Brazil pitches new forest fund at COP30
Paris (AFP) Nov 5, 2025 - Tropical countries from Cameroon to Colombia could earn tens of millions of dollars a year under a novel approach to protecting the world's rainforests being launched at the COP30 summit in Brazil.

The inauguration of the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) is expected Thursday as global leaders meet in the Brazilian Amazon, where this year's UN climate negotiations are being held.

Brazil is courting $125 billion from governments and private financiers for a global investment fund that proposes making annual payments to developing countries for every hectare of forest they keep standing.

The scheme has attracted some early interest, but investors have been less forthcoming. Here's what to know about Brazil's centrepiece forest initiative at COP30:

- Why is it needed? -

Most of the world's primary rainforest lies in poorer tropical countries where there is simply more money to be made cutting down trees than saving them.

Decades of promises by wealthy countries to bankroll the fight against deforestation have not materialised, said Joao Paulo de Resende, special climate adviser at Brazil's finance ministry.

Despite some improvements at the national level, including in Brazil, deforestation rates remain at record highs globally: the equivalent of 18 football fields of primary forest was lost every minute in 2024.

This is an enormous problem for the planet. Rainforests are rich in biodiversity and help regulate the climate, and destroying them releases vast amounts of stored carbon.

- How does the fund work? -

Enter the forest fund, which proposes creating a reliable, long-term revenue stream to undercut the economic incentive in tropical countries to chop down trees.

It first needs to find $25 billion from "sponsor" governments wanting to burnish their conservation credentials and willing to take the first hit should the fund suffer losses.

By absorbing more risk, Brazil hopes to attract another $100 billion from private investors like pension and sovereign funds whose returns would be better protected.

Their combined capital would be ploughed into emerging markets to generate profits which, after interest repayments to investors, flow to tropical countries with low deforestation rates as confirmed by satellite.

This approach differs from carbon markets or the traditional "grant and aid model", where donations are given to specific forest conservation projects, said Pakhi Das, who has studied the fund for Plant-for-the-Planet, a non-profit initiative.

"It is profitable for both the tropical forest countries who are receiving these funds... and investors who are going to be paying for conservation," she said.

- Who stands to benefit? -

Brazil expects the fund to generate $4 billion a year for conservation and, according to its latest concept note, has identified 74 forest-rich nations that could split the spoils.

In reality, far fewer would be eligible, at least initially.

Only countries with a low rate of annual deforestation -- below 0.5 percent -- would meet the criteria, and that record must be maintained, year after year, to keep receiving payments.

"I think that's quite straightforward... is deforestation being reduced, or not? And if not -- no payment anymore," World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Brazil's executive director, Mauricio Voivodic, told AFP.

It should also motivate others to up their game, experts told AFP. In many cases, the potential payout is double or triple what national governments or outside donors provide for forest conservation.

Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo could theoretically earn hundreds of millions of dollars a year should they stamp out deforestation entirely.

- Will it work? -

Brazil has pledged $1 billion to the fund -- the only country to commit any money so far. Indonesia has announced its intention to invest, but has not specified an amount.

"What we do need to get at COP is like a political message that this is the way forward," said Resende, who said the fund could still launch without all $25 billion.

Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said Tuesday Brazil was confident of raising "about $10 billion by the end of next year".

However, Britain -- which helped formulate the initiative -- announced Wednesday it will not contribute amid stretched public finances ahead of a government budget later this month.

"We continue to back the scheme, and we'll explore ways to bring the full weight of the UK private finance sector to support (it)," Prime Minister Keir Starmer's spokesman said.

Some diplomats have expressed concerns over the fund's monitoring methods and scepticism that it will receive the high credit rating needed to attract outside investors, let alone such returns on emerging markets.

Observers said it was a difficult time to be asking governments for large contributions to forest conservation, but stressed that the long-term project could garner support over time.