“Without stopping deforestation there is no solution to climate change”

We are not going to achieve the objectives of the United Nations Paris Agreements to stop global warming without halting and reversing deforestation. If we don’t protect our forests, we are going to exceed the limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius. This is stated by Eron Bloomgarden, director of the NGO Emergent and one of the creators of the LEAF Coalition, whose task is to defend and protect the great tropical forests of the planet. His goal is to achieve zero deforestation by 2030.

Bloomgarden, who is a professor of sustainable finance at the Earth Institute of Columbia University, has designed a financial proposal to incentivize and make the defense and protection of forests economically profitable and works to engage governments, multinationals and communities in it. local. He affirms that, mainly, it is necessary to focus on deforestation in the Amazon (Brazil), in Indonesia and in the Congo basin, in Africa. “This is where we must act massively intensely if we want to win the war on global deforestation,” he says. These three regions are crucial”.

Professor Bloomgarden has participated this week in the SOStenibilidad conference cycle organized by La Vanguardia and sponsored by Inditex. In an extensive conversation with Enric Sierra, deputy director of ‘La Vanguardia’, which was broadcast on streaming last Thursday through the website of this newspaper, Professor Bloomgarden presented the proposals of the LEAF Coalition – an initiative that aligns governments and companies – to combat deforestation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Professor Bloomgarden was the creator of the Clean Energy Investment Fund (CIF); partner in EcoSecurities, the world’s largest carbon credit company that was acquired by JP Morgan; adviser to the European Commission on financing renewable energy projects; collaborator of the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in climate finance projects and member of the Council of the Global Agenda on Biodiversity at the World Economic Forum.

The disaster of the destruction of tropical forests is colossal. As he explained in the interview with the deputy director of ‘La Vanguardia’, we lose 15,000 million trees a year, about 41 million per day. From a climatic point of view, tropical deforestation generates between 10% and 15% of greenhouse gas emissions. Put into perspective, if all the deforestation in the world were a country, it would be the third, after China and the United States.

Forests, in particular, not only have an impact on the climate, but have many other impacts on diversity, human health and the global water cycle.

“To combat deforestation – explained the professor – we do not have to invent new technologies, nor to combat greenhouse gases, since a tree is very effective in capturing CO2 and storing it in its trunk, in its branches or in its leaves. We have the technology. The challenge is financing, incentives and political decisions. To achieve this is why we created the LEAF Coalition. LEAF means lowering emissions by accelerating forest financing.”

The main problem, according to his analysis, is that there are no economic incentives to maintain the forests. “Often,” he pointed out, “forests are worth more dead than alive. For example, in the Amazon, if you are looking for economic opportunities, a standing forest does not give you much. Only extractive use can give you an economic benefit”

The LEAF Coalition is working to try to change the current dynamic. To this end, it proposes to energize carbon monetary markets so that there are companies and other organizations that acquire high-integrity carbon credits generated by reducing deforestation. This would make it possible to generate massive flows of finance to change economic incentives and make forests more attractive.

These capital flows can finance the creation of new protected areas, enforce existing laws against illegal deforestation, provide communities with economic alternatives so they are not forced to deforest for a living, and provide governments the means for indigenous peoples to become the guardians of the forests.

“The goal of the LEAF Coalition – says Professor Bloomgarden – is to reach 2030 with a level of zero deforestation. how are we going to make it? With the promotion of a public and private collaboration that brings together the governments of countries with forests, multinational companies in the private sector, investors and other parties involved. LEAF, in this sense, is a platform where the set of necessary collective actions can be aligned”.

“It is crucial – he insisted – to reverse deforestation to stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius of temperature increase in 2030 and thus comply with the Paris Agreements. The only way to do it is on a massive scale. with agreements at the government level, and with help to economies with tropical forests so that they evolve towards a green economy model, without pressure on forests and away from logging”.

The LEAF Coalition’s program is to move from individual projects to a whole country becoming the project to reduce deforestation. “If everything if everything that happens in the country to reduce deforestation comes from activities that generate carbon credits we can use many tools,” said Professor Bloomgarden. We have government policies and legislation. We have private investment. Monitoring of compliance with the law. And we can also empower indigenous peoples and local communities, with ambitious and large-scale management plans. There are many things that we can do when we move at the jurisdictional level”.

The LEAF Coalition already involves twenty-six large multinationals involved with investments exceeding one billion dollars. All of them have shown that they are using carbon credits to mitigate their additional emissions. “Now,” Professor Bloomgarden also explained, “we are activating what we hope will be a large-scale private sector market to generate the necessary incentives to make forests more viable.”

The LEAF Coalition has already signed agreements with the first three countries that will provide the credits. “Our intention – he said – is to scale the process massively to reach 10,000 million a year to address the problem. In this way we will be able to change the course and achieve a level of zero deforestation by the year 2030”.

How does LEAF work? As detailed by Professor Bloomgarden, he first reaches agreements with companies and donor governments. It already has the participation of four governments: the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway and the Republic of Korea. He would like Spain to join the initiative.

Donor governments and corporations commit to invest, commit to buy high integrity credits produced from protecting forests from countries participating in the LEAF Coalition. In a second phase, the application of activities to reduce deforestation in the countries is developed. The third phase consists of verification, by an external certified body, that the reduction in emissions is real and is properly calculated. From here carbon credits are issued and LEAF pays governments and administrations. This is the financial flow. In the fifth phase, these funds are reinvested by the jurisdictions – governments and public administrations – in activities that are positive for the climate, in activities that will further protect the forest. “The idea,” said the professor, “is that it be a virtuous circle, because there will be more companies, more countries, more investment, to keep the circle moving.”

“At LEAF – concluded Professor Bloomgarden – we invite countries with forest masses to submit their proposals, we carry out an eligibility assessment and select the countries likely to carry out the transactions. The process is underway and must be accelerated. The weather keeps changing. If nothing is done, we will go from one and a half degrees to two, two and a half, three, four… And the impacts will be catastrophic. So we must act as soon as possible. And forests must play a crucial role in this fight.”