PRIVATE CASH PILES UP
Private companies announced US$3.6 billion in extra money. They include investment firm SouthBridge Group, creating a US$2 billion fund for restoration efforts in Africa, the region with the most tropical rainforest after South America.
Volkswagen Group and H&M Group signed up to a separate initiative, The LEAF Coalition, launched at COP26, in which governments and companies pay countries with tropical and subtropical forests for emissions reductions.
Ecuador also became the first country to sign a memorandum of agreement with Emergent, coordinator of the coalition, that aims to see a binding Emissions Reduction Payment Agreement signed by the end of April 2023. South Korea also agreed to be the first Asian government to provide finance for the coalition, joining founders Britain, Norway and the United States.
“The need is urgent – for the climate, for biodiversity and the people that depend on forests,” Emergent Chief Executive Eron Bloomgarden said. Other initiatives towards meeting the 2030 forest pledge also announced incremental progress at the opening of COP27.
A coalition of 25 governments and charities said that 19 per cent of US$1.7 billion promised to indigenous communities to promote land rights and forest protection had been paid out.
But despite a promise to pay most of the money directly to local communities, roughly half of the funds were routed through international nongovernmental organisations. Only 7 per cent of went to community-led groups, which the coalition said needs to be corrected.
A separate initiative by investors to push companies to eliminate deforestation by 2025 said that Swiss asset manager GAM Investments, UK pension manager London CIV, SouthBridge and Banco Estado de Chile had all joined the alliance.
In September, the initiative announced standards that companies should follow to trace commodities and disclose links to deforestation.
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