Distinguished Delegates,Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my pleasure to join you at this important event entitled “Realizing Forest-based climate actions: Global Forest Goals, SDGs & the Paris Agreement.”
One of the long-standing roles of the United Nations is to bring countries together to address global challenges. The sustainability of our planet – in the face of the ever-increasing impacts of climate change – is one such challenge. We must address this challenge without any further delay.
This event is being organized at a time when forests are in the spotlight. They are in the mainstream news, on political arenas and across and beyond the UN system.Forests are central in developing solutions to mitigating and adapting to climate change. These terrestrial ecosystems have already removed nearly one third of human-produced carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere. And through sustainable forest management, they could remove much more.
Together, forests and sustainable agriculture have significant influence in mitigating climate change. They could get us at least a quarter of the way to meeting the goal of the Paris Agreement of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5° Celsius.
Forests cover 30 per cent of all the land on our planet. They contribute to the livelihoods of over a fifth of the world’s population.
They represent a safety net for both rural and urban poor in many developing countries, by providing them with goods and services. Such as water, food, medicine, construction materials, and jobs. Forests and the solutions they offer are thus critical to accelerating achievement of the SDGs and addressing climate change.
Distinguished participants,
Today, there is no doubt that deforestation is a significant contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions. There is also no doubt that improving sustainable forest management is a key part of the climate solution – as a mitigation strategy and as an adaptation mechanism.
At the 2019 Climate Action Summit convened last September in New York, more than 150 Nature-Based Solutions to cut carbon emissions were announced, many of them involving forests. Many countries around the world made major commitments to plant more than 11 billion trees.
And at the SDG Summit, there was growing recognition of the importance of forests and other nature-based solutions in advancing progress towards the Goals. A Decade of Action to deliver the SDGs by 2030 was launched. And world leaders announced more than 100 acceleration actions, including 26 actions that are directly related to SDG15 on ‘life on land’.
Since 2015, the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) has made consistent efforts to elevate the significance of forests in the global policy agenda. It continues to promote implementation of the 2030 Agenda through forest action.
Based on the proposal of the UN Forum on Forests, the first ever United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2030 was adopted by the UN General Assembly in April 2017. This Plan, with its Global Forest Goals and associated targets, provides an integrated framework of actions across the United Nations system and beyond. These actions aim to unlock the potential of “forests” to address climate change and accelerate the achievement of the SDGs.
Distinguished Delegates,
In order to achieve these Goals, we will also need to enhance our support to meet the capacity-building needs of developing countries. To this end, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UNDESA, is working with Member States to strengthen their capabilities to tackle climate change through various means, including forest financing.
In this regard, the achievements of the UNFF’s Global Forest Financing Facilitation Network are truly noteworthy.
This Network is supporting countries to strengthen their capacity to mobilize funding from all sources for sustainable forests management. This includes by providing technical assistance, and facilitating their access to information and data related to forest funding opportunities.
The Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) has also played an essential role.
Today, we are joined at this event by several of the partners from the CPF. They will share their experiences to support sustainable forest management and to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
From my side, UNDESA remains strongly committed to supporting the implementation of the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2030, the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda.We look forward to your innovative ideas, and guidance on how we can work together to strengthen sustainable forest management. Together, let us advance achievement of the SDGs through forest-based actions towards a carbon positive future.
Thank you.
It is my pleasure to join you at this important event entitled “Realizing Forest-based climate actions: Global Forest Goals, SDGs & the Paris Agreement.”
One of the long-standing roles of the United Nations is to bring countries together to address global challenges. The sustainability of our planet – in the face of the ever-increasing impacts of climate change – is one such challenge. We must address this challenge without any further delay.
This event is being organized at a time when forests are in the spotlight. They are in the mainstream news, on political arenas and across and beyond the UN system.Forests are central in developing solutions to mitigating and adapting to climate change. These terrestrial ecosystems have already removed nearly one third of human-produced carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere. And through sustainable forest management, they could remove much more.
Together, forests and sustainable agriculture have significant influence in mitigating climate change. They could get us at least a quarter of the way to meeting the goal of the Paris Agreement of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5° Celsius.
Forests cover 30 per cent of all the land on our planet. They contribute to the livelihoods of over a fifth of the world’s population.
They represent a safety net for both rural and urban poor in many developing countries, by providing them with goods and services. Such as water, food, medicine, construction materials, and jobs. Forests and the solutions they offer are thus critical to accelerating achievement of the SDGs and addressing climate change.
Distinguished participants,
Today, there is no doubt that deforestation is a significant contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions. There is also no doubt that improving sustainable forest management is a key part of the climate solution – as a mitigation strategy and as an adaptation mechanism.
At the 2019 Climate Action Summit convened last September in New York, more than 150 Nature-Based Solutions to cut carbon emissions were announced, many of them involving forests. Many countries around the world made major commitments to plant more than 11 billion trees.
And at the SDG Summit, there was growing recognition of the importance of forests and other nature-based solutions in advancing progress towards the Goals. A Decade of Action to deliver the SDGs by 2030 was launched. And world leaders announced more than 100 acceleration actions, including 26 actions that are directly related to SDG15 on ‘life on land’.
Since 2015, the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) has made consistent efforts to elevate the significance of forests in the global policy agenda. It continues to promote implementation of the 2030 Agenda through forest action.
Based on the proposal of the UN Forum on Forests, the first ever United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2030 was adopted by the UN General Assembly in April 2017. This Plan, with its Global Forest Goals and associated targets, provides an integrated framework of actions across the United Nations system and beyond. These actions aim to unlock the potential of “forests” to address climate change and accelerate the achievement of the SDGs.
Distinguished Delegates,
In order to achieve these Goals, we will also need to enhance our support to meet the capacity-building needs of developing countries. To this end, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UNDESA, is working with Member States to strengthen their capabilities to tackle climate change through various means, including forest financing.
In this regard, the achievements of the UNFF’s Global Forest Financing Facilitation Network are truly noteworthy.
This Network is supporting countries to strengthen their capacity to mobilize funding from all sources for sustainable forests management. This includes by providing technical assistance, and facilitating their access to information and data related to forest funding opportunities.
The Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) has also played an essential role.
Today, we are joined at this event by several of the partners from the CPF. They will share their experiences to support sustainable forest management and to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
From my side, UNDESA remains strongly committed to supporting the implementation of the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2030, the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda.We look forward to your innovative ideas, and guidance on how we can work together to strengthen sustainable forest management. Together, let us advance achievement of the SDGs through forest-based actions towards a carbon positive future.
Thank you.
File date:
Wednesday, December 11, 2019