U.S., U.K. and Norway partner with Amazon, others for $1 billion initiative to protect tropical forests, lower emissions

WASHINGTON – The United States is joining the United Kingdom, Norway and a group of companies including Amazon to launch a $1 billion initiative to protect tropical forests as part of a wider effort to lower greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

The three governments unveiled the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance coalition on Thursday to focus on reducing emissions from tropical and subtropical forest countries as well as ending deforestation. The announcement comes after President Joe Biden set an ambitious target of reducing emissions roughly in half by 2030 at a virtual climate summit as Washington looks to take on a leading role in the global effort to tackle climate change.

John Kerry, Biden's special envoy for climate, said the LEAF Coalition was an example of the kind of collaboration needed to fight climate change and reach net-zero emissions globally by 2050.

"Bringing together government and private-sector resources is a necessary step in supporting the large-scale efforts that must be mobilized to halt deforestation and begin to restore tropical and subtropical forests," Kerry said in a statement.

The United States, Britain and Norway are the first three governments to join the initiative along with Amazon, Airbnb, Boston Consulting Group, GSK, McKinsey, Nestlé, Salesforce, Bayer and Unilever, a group that claims to already agree to emissions cuts within their own companies.

LEAF funding will only be provided after participating countries, states or provinces, known as “jurisdictions," are verified and have met requirements through an international standard to track and monitor reduction of deforestation and emissions. Costa Rica, Guyana and three states in the Amazon have so far submitted proposals to use the standard, known as ART/TREES, according to Eron Bloomgarden, head of the U.S.-based nonprofit Emergent, which is coordinating the LEAF coalition.

Bloomgarden said these jurisdictions can claim emissions reductions by measuring the current deforestation rate against a five-year historic baseline. Countries will be given latitude to use the money to tackle issues like what's driving deforestation, such as illegal logging, buying new patrol vehicles for park service or building new fire towers to address wildfires, or toward reduction targets made under the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, known as "nationally determined contributions." Those NDCs could include initiatives to promote a more green, sustainable economy that removes some of the systemic pressure on forests, he said.

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Countries seeking funding will submit proposals by July 2021 with the goal of signing contracts before the end of 2021. The financing will be provided in subsequent performance years of 2022 through 2026. Bloomgarden said the aim is to get more governments and companies on board.

"The idea is the $1 billion is a starting point. We need billions to reverse deforestation so I think this is the first step that is saying this is the platform to do it," he said.

Deforestation jumped 12% from 2019 to 2020, according to the World Resources Institute, a research group that issues an annual report on the matter. The world lost more than 4.4 million hectares of primary tropical forest cover last year, or the equivalency of the size of Switzerland, the report found.

“In uniting behind a common cause, the countries and companies of the coalition have a chance to end deforestation by 2030," Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said.

Savio Carvalho, global campaign lead for environmental activist group Greenpeace International, said the initiative was not enough to confront the climate crisis.

LEAF amounts to nothing more than greenwashing, when real investment is needed to "protect and restore nature," Carvalho said. "Rich countries and corporations are getting a bargain - one billion dollars is a drop in the bucket when governments are spending trillions to support sectors that are destroying nature and our climate."

A finalized list of governments and companies will be announced when emissions reduction purchase agreements are signed with the partnering countries by the end of the year.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Climate summit: US, UK, Norway, Amazon launch push to protect forests