Climate Home reports that Colombia aims to leverage its vast natural assets to achieve its ambitious climate goals over the next 10 years. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50872025538_0217c80b9f_b.jpg Chela Elena Umir assesses the ecosystem services provided by the forests surrounding her community in Colombia. Photo credit: Luis Barreto/WWF Colombia aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 by halting deforestation and restoring forests. Colombia, with more than half of its territory covered by tropical forests, plans to halt deforestation and restore nearly one million hectares of forest ecosystems to reduce carbon emissions to 51% of its baseline by 2030. Colombia's new target is a significant improvement over its previous 20% emissions reduction target, particularly impressive given the critical juncture of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2020. The plan, developed after extensive internal government discussions and public consultation, aims to establish a carbon budget starting in 2023 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. "To meet these commitments, we absolutely need to protect the Amazon and fight deforestation," Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez told Reuters in an interview, calling for natural solutions to climate change. But the task ahead is daunting. Deforestation accounts for about a quarter of Colombia's total carbon emissions. The 2016 peace agreement that ended more than 50 years of civil war between the government and the Farc rebel group also brought a surge in deforestation. Experts say Colombia's carbon reduction targets are far from reality. During the conflict, the Farc implemented strict deforestation controls to cover guerrilla warfare in the forest and retain revenue from illegal mines and cocaine plantations used to produce cocaine. After the group disarmed, widespread illegal land grabbing occurred in difficult-to-police areas for grazing, logging, and cocaine production. According to the Colombian Institute of Hydrometeorology and Environment (Ideam), which monitors deforestation in the country, deforestation surged to its highest level in 2017, with 219,552 hectares of forest cleared, up from nearly 124,000 hectares in 2015. "Colombia's new pledge is far from what's currently happening," said Estefania Ardila, Latin American country engagement specialist for the NDC Partnership, an organization that helps developing countries raise their climate ambitions. Ardila said Colombia's ambition is significant given the challenges of high inequality and unemployment. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50872729341_3cdf27e58c_b.jpg Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez has called for natural solutions to combat climate change. Photo credit: Luis Barreto / WWF Colombia missed its 2020 target to halve forest loss. To design its climate goals and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, the government calculated a carbon budget for 2030. "To achieve this goal, there can be no net deforestation after 2030," said Ivan Valencia, former coordinator of Colombia's low-carbon strategy and current independent consultant to Colombia, who led the mitigation component of the country's Nationally Determined Emissions Reduction Plan. As a signatory to the New York Declaration on Forests, Colombia pledged to halve the loss of natural forests by 2020 and achieve net-zero deforestation by 2030, meaning any deforestation would be offset by planting native trees. By 2019, deforestation had fallen to less than 160,000 hectares, but the 2020 target was missed as deforestation nearly doubled in the first three months of that year compared to the same period in 2019. To preserve carbon-rich forests, create jobs, and recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, Colombia is working to provide alternative livelihoods for people living both inside and outside the forests. Colombia's Climate Plan: One-Third Combating Deforestation. One-third of Colombia's climate plan submitted to the United Nations is devoted to measures to combat deforestation. Combined with ecosystem restoration efforts, nature-related actions account for more than half of the country's carbon reduction measures. "Colombia must adhere to its deforestation reduction targets and maintain progress, or it will miss its climate goals and will require significant efforts elsewhere to offset them," said Carolina Jaramillo, Colombia representative of the Global Green Growth Institute. Jaramillo said avoiding further deforestation and protecting forest ecosystems are Colombia's most cost-effective ways to reduce emissions. To achieve its goals, Colombia plans to restore over 960,000 hectares of land by 2030, plant 180 million trees by 2022, and reduce deforestation by 50,000 hectares annually compared to the baseline by 2030. The plan states that under the Paris Agreement's carbon market mechanism, the additional emission reductions from reduced deforestation can be sold as carbon credits, helping to raise funds for other carbon reduction measures. For example, the government is establishing financial incentives for farmers to encourage more efficient livestock farming methods, reducing the amount of pasture required, and thereby restoring ecosystems so that they can store more carbon. The government is also introducing agroforestry measures for coffee and cocoa, as well as developing sustainable forestry. Source: Environmental Information Center, Climate Home
