Jurisdictional White Paper Launch

Emergent along with Forest Trends, UN Environment Programme and the Environmental Defense Fund are excited to announce the launch of our white paper: ‘Why large-scale forest protection must urgently be part of corporate climate mitigation strategies.‘ 

In this white paper, we lay out the facts that are core to our mission: scaling tropical forest protection using the jurisdictional approach is critical to reaching a 1.5-degree pathway. Alongside support from tropical forest jurisdictions, donor governments and civil society organizations, corporate action can play an instrumental role in ramping up results-based finance to help end deforestation around the world. 

We are not on track, and time is running out. Emissions from tropical deforestation and degradation make up over 10 percent of net human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, and – primary forest deforestation increased by 12 percent between 2019 and 2020. Every 15 minutes the world loses an area of tropical forest equal to the size of New York’s Central Park. This destruction emits 100,000 metric tonnes of CO2e, which cannot be easily recovered: Trying to sequester this carbon in a year would require planting fifty times as much forest as was lost.  

We are not on track, and time is running out. Emissions from tropical deforestation and degradation make up over 10 percent of net human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, and – primary forest deforestation increased by 12 percent between 2019 and 2020. Every 15 minutes the world loses an area of tropical forest equal to the size of New York’s Central Park. This destruction emits 100,000 metric tonnes of CO2e, which cannot be easily recovered: Trying to sequester this carbon in a year would require planting fifty times as much forest as was lost.  

We hope this paper will provide clarity on the urgent need to reduce tropical deforestation and help companies form their case for investing in tropical forest protection on their paths to net zero.

See this work featured in Reuters news: Companies should put climate cash towards saving tropical forests – paper.