Tropical Deforestation and Global Warming

Reducing tropical deforestation is feasible, affordable, and essential to avoid dangerous global warming

Slowing tropical deforestation, which currently accounts for about 20 percent of heat-trapping gas emissions worldwide, can make an important contribution to the global emissions reductions that are necessary to avoid dangerous climate change. An international team of eleven top forest and climate researchers, including UCS director of science and policy, Peter Frumhoff, found that cutting deforestation rates in half by mid-century would amount to 12 percent of the emissions reductions needed to keep concentrations of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere at relatively safe levels.

The paper, published in the 18 May 2007 issue of Science, provides new evidence that tropical forests will persist in the face of climate change, especially if nations make needed cuts in both industrial and deforestation emissions.

Policymakers are weighing proposals for the design of international climate policies after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. One proposal is an initiative introduced by the governments of Papua New Guinea, Costa Rica, and several other forest-rich developing countries that are seeking to limit their emissions from deforestation. These nations are seeking financing from the global carbon market to create economic incentives for tropical forest conservation.

Tropical deforestation is the largest source of emissions for many developing countries, but slowing deforestation can't solve the climate problem by itself. As forest-rich developing countries step up to take responsibility for reducing their emissions, the United States and other industrialized nations should not only support their efforts but, most importantly, reduce their own emissions and lead efforts to avert dangerous climate change.