In December of this year, the world has an unprecedented opportunity to finally achieve a global deal to address climate change.  After almost 25 years of intense negotiations involving over 100 countries, the key participants have signaled that not only is a global climate treaty likely, but that it will include provisions addressing forests and land use and also take into account the needs of local communities and indigenous people – the core issues that Forest Trends has been promoting for years.

As part of the process leading up the December UN climate negotiations (called a Conference of the Parties, or COP), each major country including the US is submitting their respective targets and plans for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

It is already clear that many of the commitments being brought to Paris, including by the US, Brazil, China, and others, will be insufficient to achieve the emissions reductions necessary for the overall target to limit global warming to 2 degrees, which most experts agree is the limit before we tumble into major climate disruption. While there may be political limitations to what the US and other major countries can do at the COP, there is much Forest Trends and its allies can do to strengthen these countries’ efforts to reduce GHG emissions.

For example, two weeks ago Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and US President Barack Obama captured global attention when they announced major new commitments to reduce their respective nations’ carbon emissions.  Brazil set a target of restoring 12 million hectares of forest (more than 46,000 square miles) by 2030. However, there are questions whether Brazil can meet its target – at an estimated cost of between US$6 and $60 Billion – without major new sources of public and private finance.

In partnership with local groups like IPAM and Earth Innovation Institute we are working closely with the Brazilian government to reach and surpass its targets. One example is our work on “green bonds,” which is currently being reviewed by President Rousseff’s ministers. This type of climate finance can reduce costs for Brazil and risks for investors, providing flexible finance at a scale that allows existing initiatives, like Brazil’s Low-Carbon Agriculture Credit program, to make an even bigger impact. By bringing funding into the country through capital markets, these measures could allow Brazil to set more ambitious forest protection and climate goals.

In the United States, President Obama’s recently announced climate commitment addresses emissions from coal-fired power plants, major industry, vehicles, and buildings. But the US could make a much greater climate commitment if we can reduce emissions related to the land sector. Forest Trends is currently working with a coalition of other partners to define a bold policy roadmap for achieving long-term, ambitious carbon sequestration in America’s “carbon sinks” – farms, forests, and grasslands that remove nearly 900 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year. The timing for this work could not be more critical: if we do not reverse the current trajectory, future loss of our forests and grasslands and the carbon they store will completely counteract emissions reductions in all other sectors.

Together, the simultaneous efforts in Brazil and the US can leverage one another and pressure both governments to make stronger climate commitments this December in Paris.  This is a sharp example of how your support of Forest Trends gets translated into highly leveraged, impact-oriented efforts to protect our planet’s forests and the planet.