Forestry for a low-carbon future
Posted: August 4, 2016Source: FAO.org
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The Paris Agreement, adopted by 195 Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2015, recognizes the urgency of climate change and calls for limiting the increase in global temperatures to well below 2°C compared with pre-industrial levels, with an ambition to limit the increase to 1.5°C. It recognizes the key role of forests in meeting this challenge, not only for their mitigation potential, but also for their contribution to adaptation.
In order to meet the ambition of the Paris Agreement, countries are called to contribute to emission reduction within their different capabilities, on the basis of voluntary commitments expressed through Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). More than 70 percent of the countries that submitted INDCs to UNFCCC included forests in their planned contributions to mitigation, with many also recognizing their role in adaptation.