France agreed yesterday night to pay Papua New Guinea $100 million and the Republic of Congo $50 million to protect their forests in efforts to keep the world safe enough for inhabitation.
While announcing the partnerships at the UN’s COP28 climate talks in Dubai, President Emmanuel Macron pointed out that he hoped to conclude a similar $60 million deal with DR Congo.
‘Nature is the best technology available to capture and store CO2,’ he said, adding that “we have to remunerate countries when they actively protect these forests’.
Africa Today News, New York reports that the move comes a day after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva appealed for the creation of a $250 billion fund to save tropical forests, which would pay 80 countries for their preservation efforts.
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Africa Today News, New York recalls that the COP28 climate talks in Dubai have begun with a flurry of announcements promising action on global warming, led by its big-spending, oil-rich host the United Arab Emirates.
The UAE and Germany pledged $100 million each, France $109 million, $50 million from Britain, $25 million from Denmark and $17.5 million from the United States, the world’s biggest historical polluter.
Campaigners said the US offering was woefully inadequate.
The total committed as of Saturday was some $656 million, according to a tally by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group.
That falls vastly short of the $100 billion a year that developing nations — which have historically been least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions — have said are needed to cover losses from natural disasters.
At least 116 countries committed Saturday to triple renewable energy capacity worldwide by 2030 and double the annual rate of energy efficiency improvements.
G20 nations, which account for nearly 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, paved the way for a deal when they endorsed the renewable energy goal in September.
While supporters are expected to push for the pledge to be included in the outcome of the talks, there are fears that the COP28 hosts were willing to shunt the more ambitious targets into voluntary deals.