Deforestation is the climate deal-breaker the world can't afford to ignore any more

In the Great Frost of 1709, the wine froze in the glasses of French king Louis XIV in his palace at Versailles. The “Little Ice Age”, at its chilliest in the 16th and 17th centuries, may have been in part caused by the mass annihilation of people in the Americas during European colonisation, and the regrowth of the Amazon rainforest across abandoned farmlands. After the Cop30 talks in the Brazilian city of Belem concluded on Saturday, we face climate peril the other way, as deforestation drives global heating.

The last two Cop events, held in the UAE and Azerbaijan, were criticised for being hosted by major fossil fuel exporters. Brazil is also a large and growing oil exporter.

But its climate impact is even more pronounced in terms of deforestation: it clears the largest area of forest globally, and it, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo contribute 57 per cent of global emissions from land-use.

UAE fighting to keep Cop28 commitments alive at Cop30 and beyond 02:15

Overall, the global food system produces about 30 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, a large part of that from land clearance. The unabated use of fossil fuels is the main contributor to climate change, but there is no chance of limiting global warming to the level of 1.5°C or 2°C above pre-industrial levels targeted by 2015’s Paris Agreement without also zeroing-out deforestation.

As host of this year’s UN climate gathering, Brazil was acutely aware of this dilemma. While intense equatorial rains threatened to drown out the voices of speakers, Cop30 reached agreement on the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, which has so far attracted commitments of $6.6 billion. The TFFF was first put forward by Brazilian representatives at Cop28 in Dubai. It aims to pay low- and middle-income nations for protecting or restoring their tropical forests.

France and other EU members set up a $2.5 billion initiative to conserve the Congo Basin, the world’s second-biggest rainforest. There was strong support for the rights of indigenous people. More problematically, Brazil won backing for its goal of quadrupling output of “sustainable fuels”.

Preserving and restoring rainforests and other rich, carbon-storing habitats such as mangroves, is an essential part of climate protection.