COP26 flagship deforestation deal hailed — but will it fare well?

COP26 flagship deforestation deal hailed — but will it fare well?

A global commitment to halt the destruction of the world’s great forests, signed by more than 100 world leaders on Tuesday, was the first big deal of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.

But almost immediately, critics voiced doubts as to how the plan would be enforced, and whether it would prove more effective than previous commitments to end deforestation — a major source of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“Signing the declaration is the easy part,” said António Guterres, secretary-general of the UN, which convened the COP26 gathering. “It’s essential that it’s implemented now, for people and the planet.”

Under the Glasgow deal, countries that are home to more than 85 per cent of the world’s forests have agreed to halt and even reverse forest loss by the end of the decade. This was bolstered by pledges from 30 financial institutions to eliminate their exposure to agricultural commodity-linked woodland destruction by 2025.

But the signatories, which include Brazil, Russia, Canada and Indonesia as well as the US, UK and other western nations, did not detail how the implementation of the agreement would be tracked, or what might happen if nations reneged on the promise.

“We were expecting more detail and it’s disappointing we don’t have