Germany, Norway and the UK call for tropical forest protection
Clean Energy Wire / Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom have called for "increased ambition and action by the global community" to conserve and restore tropical forests. In a joint statement, the governments said they are on track to deliver on their 2015 pledge to provide more than 4.5 billion euros in total by 2020 to countries that "came forward with ambitious plans to halt and reverse deforestation." Ahead of the UN Climate Summit taking place on September 23, German development minister Gerd Müller also said an international forest protection programme was necessary, and that he would engage in talks with the World Bank on a three-digit million-euro sum dedicated to this purpose, reported Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
The large wildfires in the Amazon region in South America have recently led German government members to criticise Brazil's government under President Jair Bolsonaro for inaction, and to call for much stronger international efforts to protect rainforests around the world as a crucial climate action measure. Germany's own forests have also become a point of focus as prolonged droughts have begun to take a toll on the country’s biggest ecosystems.
