MoP19-CBFP-UK: His Excellency Rt Hon Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park's speech at CBFP MOP 19 in Libreville

…As we give the COP26 pledge a permanent home at the CBFP... And having committed to investing nearly a third of UK International Climate Finance – which we recently doubled – into nature, at least half of that in forests...we’re forging ahead with the work that our £200m commitment to the Congo Basin pledge will support…through the brilliant Forests, Governance, Markets, and Climate Programme, our newly established transboundary Biodiverse Landscapes Fund, and a new bilateral programme that we’re designing ahead of COP27…alongside our £32m contribution to CAFI. We know CAFI needs to change – and we’re committed to that as well.... Find out more...

REMARKS

Thank you.

Bonjour à tous

It’s great to hear from my fellow speakers.

We have true champions for the Congo Basin here today.

A huge thanks to everyone who has given us such a warm welcome to your beautiful country – and to you Lee, for showing me some of the amazing work that’s underway in Gabon

…from using geospatial tech to give donors the confidence they need back wonders like Lope National Park, protecting everything from forest elephants to okapi

…to making sure communities feel more of the benefits of sustainable forestry, by turning timber into furniture before it leaves the country.

These are the sort of practical solutions we need to scale up.

And that’s what the Congo Basin Forests Partnership is all about.

Yesterday, I co-chaired a ministerial meeting alongside Minister Ndongo

…for the first time since we came together at the COMIFAC pavilion in Glasgow, to reflect on the progress we’d made at the COP26 World Leaders’ Summit a few days before.

It had been a long time coming – and it felt like a real celebration.

Over 140 countries representing over 90% of the world’s forests – including many of you – had committed to work together to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation, by 2030.

Public, private, and philanthropic donors stepped up with unprecedented investment amounting to nearly $20bn.

 

We secured an initial $1.7bn to help indigenous peoples and local communities advance their tenure rights – that could not be more important.

 

The Glasgow Declaration is reinforced by commitments from the world’s biggest buyers of forest-risk commodities, financial institutions, and the big multilateral development banks

…that will see trillions of dollars aligned with the Paris climate goals and the recovery of nature.

And $1bn was committed through LEAF – a high integrity carbon market that will help us do more.

And as well as bringing nature from the margins of global climate conversation into the heart of our response for the first time – and, I think, for good

…what made COP26 so important and so different, was that that the Congo Basin was centre stage, on the world stage

…and we heard directly from you.


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