Billions for forest fund a ‘powerful signal’ over climate aid, says Ed Miliband

Résumé détaillé

Exclusive: With a billion dollars from both Indonesia and Brazil – in addition to money from wealthy European donors – the ‘breadth of support’ for global forest protection scheme at Cop31 is hailed by foreign secretary amid aid cuts from nations like the US and UK

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Billions of dollars in pledges for a high-profile forest protection fund from developing countries – and not just a small group of traditional donors with dwindling aid budgets – represents a ”powerful signal” of aid efforts to help the climate crisis, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has suggested.

Mr Miliband made the comments to The Independent after a high profile event at Cop31 where countries reaffirmed commitments to the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF): a new forest finance initiative designed to pay tropical forest countries a recurring, performance-based amount per hectare of conserved standing forest.

Launched by President Lula at Cop30 in Brazil last year, the fund has now been promised £400m from the UK, $500m (£380m) from the Netherlands, and nearly $100m from climate philanthropies.

Norway has promised to fund up to 20 per cent of the facility's initial $10 billion capitalisation target, and it is to receive $1bn from Indonesia and $1bn from Brazil: two rainforest nations that are also developing countries, and therefore do not typically face the same expectations as wealthier Western nations to provide aid

Speaking to The Independent after a period of sweeping aid cuts from developed countries including the UK, Mr Miliband commended the fact that a broader group of nations was supporting the fund.

“The breadth of support behind the TFFF is a powerful signal of the growing global momentum to protect forests, and a positive development in global efforts to fund the climate and nature crisis,” Mr Miliband said. “The UK is proud to be part of that effort, and the City of London has a crucial role to play in mobilising private capital at the scale we need.”

His comments were echoed on the sidelines of the event by Hashim S. Djojohadikusum, Indonesia’s special presidential envoy for climate and energy, who told The Independent that he…

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