Tropical forest loss almost doubled between 2023 and 2024, fueled largely by wildfires, according to a report released today by the World Resources Institute. The emissions from the forest fires were four times greater than emissions caused by aviation in 2023.
The report comes just six months before tens of thousands of people are set to fly to the Brazilian Amazon for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for the 30th U.N. climate summit, or COP30. Brazil, which has the second-largest forest cover in the world after Russia, has indicated plans to make forest conservation a central theme of the negotiations.
At the core of Brazil’s COP30 forest plan is operationalizing the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, or TFFF, which is a proposed international fund designed to financially reward countries for preserving their tropical forests. It was first proposed in 2023 at COP28. The government is now looking for countries to provide the initial funding so that the TFFF can eventually become a $125 billion investment fund.
About the author
Jesse Chase-Lubitz
Jesse Chase-Lubitz covers climate change and multilateral development banks for Devex. She previously worked at Nature Magazine, where she received a Pulitzer grant for an investigation into land reclamation. She has written for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and The Japan Times, among others. Jesse holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics.
