An Important Building Block of the Alliance for Development and Climate

At the official press conference held at the Federal Press Conference in Berlin, Federal Minister Dr. Gerd Müller, Plant-for-the-Planet, FAW/n, and the Senate of Economy Germany presented a study from ETH Zurich. The study demonstrates that large-scale global reforestation has the potential to reduce global warming by up to 1 degree Celsius.

Reforestation and forest conservation are key project categories of the Alliance for Development and Climate, which was launched by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), together with GIZ and FAW/n. Supporters of the Alliance contribute voluntarily to help preserve forest areas in developing countries and remove CO₂ from the atmosphere through reforestation. Projects that promote humus formation in agriculture, develop renewable energy sources, or expand the use of efficient cookstoves achieve the same effect. In addition, these projects generate enormous co-benefits for sustainable development and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The fact that so much forest is still being lost, too little reforestation is taking place, and insufficient progress is being made in development is largely due to a lack of financial resources. Public funds alone are not enough to meet the challenges ahead. That is why the Alliance for Development and Climate brings together private-sector actors whose goal is to become climate neutral in the long term. Recently, Robert Bosch GmbH announced that it intends to operate climate-neutrally as of 2020. The company invests around one billion euros annually to achieve this goal, using high-quality climate protection and development projects in developing countries.

In July, Federal Minister Müller will travel to Brazil to discuss, among other things, the fastest measure against climate change — forest conservation — with the responsible ministers there.