Forests and climate change

Forests have a critical role to play in the fight against global warming. They are the the largest storehouse of carbon on earth and, after coal and oil, are the third biggest source of carbon emissions.

Forests too are impacted by climate change - rising temperatures make forests drier, more susceptible to fires, and vulnerable to pests and diseases. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that at least a third of the world’s remaining forests may be adversely affected by changing climate.

Keeping cool?

Home to much of the world's biodiversity, forests have significant values, both as a provider of goods (food, medicine, timber, construction materials, etc) and services (purifying air, preserving watersheds, stabilizing soil and preventing erosion, etc).

Today, forests are widely recognised for many environmental services they provide to society. But when they are destroyed or degraded forests can become a major emitter of greenhouse gases such as CO₂.

Deforestation, particularly in the tropics, contributes about a fifth of global carbon emissions, and has negative impacts on biodiversity, local communities and indigenous peoples, sustainable long-term economic growth, air quality and other environmental and socio-economic goods and services.

When carbon emissions from deforestation are taken into account, both Brazil and Indonesia are ranked much higher in the list of the world's major polluters - among the top 10.


To know more about deforestation and Climate Change, download the documents below:

• Deforestation and Climate Change fact sheet (PDF - 372 KB)
  
• Annex to Deforestation and Climate Change fact sheet (PDF - 80 KB)

Staying well below 2°C

WWF believes that global temperature rise neeeds to stay well below 2°C compared to pre-industrial times in order to avoid dangerous climate change.

It has already been shown that 2°C warming would bring with it devastating impacts for nature, for instance to coral reefs and the Arctic, as well as water shortages for millions of people. Earth cannot afford to go above this danger threshold.

To prevent dangerous climate change, we must start cutting emissions rapidly and deeply far below current levels. Global emissions need to peak and decline before 2020.

The solutions exist - but we must act now, cutting emissions from all sources, including the roughly 20 per cent from deforestation.

According to the Stern Review: The economics of climate change, curbing deforestation is a highly cost-effective way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The WWF Climate Solutions report indicated that if emissions from deforestation are not curbed, the likelihood of succeeding in preventing dangerous climate change is drastically reduced.

Reducing forest-based emissions

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) is currently not included in the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol, which ends in 2012. There is, however, growing international consensus that the protocol's second phase should include mechanisms that recognise and provide incentives for REDD.

Countries need to develop national frameworks to tackle forest-based emissions. There must be sufficient resources provided to address the drivers of deforestation. Developed countries must help by providing resources, including technology transfer. And provision must be made to ensure that as countries with high deforestation rates implement REDD initiatives, countries which up till now have low deforestation do not begin to cut their forests. These countries should be given incentives to protect their forests as they are likely to face increasing pressure to deforest with shrinking supply of forest products.