The UK has pledged £15m toward a US$300m World Bank fund to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation.
The financing was announced in Bali where delegates from 190 countries are meeting to negotiate a new global climate change treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
Environment secretary Hilary Benn said the Bank’s pilot project will help devise ways to record and verify emissions reductions from avoided deforestation.
“Those are building blocks for … enabling big amounts of funding to come this way to preserve the forests, reduce deforestation and to manage them in a way that’s going to contribute to fighting climate change,” he said.
However, Greenpeace executive director John Sauven warned: “World leaders can’t use this as an excuse to avoid slashing emissions in their own countries. We urgently need to do both.”
