UN climate summit in Glasgow – Heads of state want to save forests – News

• More than 100 heads of state and government in Glasgow have committed to halting global deforestation by 2030.
• For this, the equivalent of 17 billion francs must be taken on hand.
• The participating countries represent a significant portion of the world’s forest areas.

The lungs of our planet are running out of air: every minute a forest area the size of about 27 football fields disappears. Forests absorb about a third of the carbon dioxide emissions that humans emit each year. A joint initiative of more than a hundred heads of state and government at the Glasgow Climate Summit aims to halt the destruction of forests and other landscapes by 2030. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a speech that the Climate Summit is the largest meeting of heads of state since the founding of the United Nations. This enables extensive strategies.

Nature cathedrals are essential to our survival.

Backers of the initiative include Switzerland and the entire European Union, but also the countries with the largest forests anywhere – Canada, Russia, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia as well as China, Norway and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The participating countries collectively cover more than 85 percent of the world’s forests, or about 34 million square kilometres.

Accordingly, the equivalent of approximately 11 billion Swiss francs of public funds will be mobilized for the project by 2025. In addition, there are 6.5 billion Swiss francs in private investment.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke of forests as “nature’s cathedrals” and declared: “They are essential to our survival.” The statement said that Indonesian President Joko Widodo said that his country is blessed with abundant rainforests. His government pledges to protect them as “natural capital”.

Over the next two weeks, around 200 countries will fight in Glasgow to see how the 1.5° target agreed in Paris can be achieved and actually implemented. The plans of the states so far are far from sufficient for this. The day before, dozens of heads of state and government had already met for the opening ceremony, including representatives of important industrialized countries such as Germany, France and the USA.

In the evening, the British Queen spoke to the heads of state and government insistently. “In the coming days the world has an opportunity to create a safer and more stable future for our people and the planet on which we depend,” the Queen said in a message published on Monday evening, a few days ago at Windsor Castle. registered.

“Many hope the legacy of this summit – written in the history books yet to be printed – will describe you as leaders who have not missed an opportunity, but who have followed the call of these posterity,” the Queen said.