SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Stilt-walkers dressed as giant trees will deliver a letter this afternoon (Friday, Sept. 14) to the driver of an electric car, to be driven coast-to-coast from the climate summit in San Francisco to the United Nations in New York and handed over to UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Keeping global temperatures under a 2-degree rise will require enormous carbon savings from forests, food, and lands – nearly as much as from renewable energy – say leading environmental groups represented this week at the Global Climate Action Summit.
Accordingly, the coalition behind "the forgotten solution" campaign has released their open letter calling on world leaders to do everything necessary "to secure, by 2030, achievement of 30 percent of the Paris Agreement goals from natural climate solutions in the forests, food and land sector." International climate talks resume this December in Poland, after New York marks Climate Week, Sept. 24-30.
"Fortunately, research also shows that stronger action in the land sector could deliver up to, and possibly over, 30% of emission reductions needed by 2030 to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement” to address climate change, the letter goes on, “while lifting a billion people out of poverty, creating 80 million jobs and adding an additional $2.3 trillion in productive growth to the global economy. "
Signers include: American Forests, Avoided Deforestation Partners, Climate Focus, Conservation International, Environmental Defense Fund, Forest Trends, George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication, Nature4Climate, Rainforest Alliance, SystemIQ, The Nature Conservancy, Trust for Public Land, United Nations Foundation, World Resources Institute, Wildlife Conservation Society, and the World Wildlife Fund.
The groups are calling for 30% of carbon savings by 2030 from forests, food, and land (see www.climatelandchallenge.org) and for these natural climate solutions to no longer be “the forgotten solution” (see www.theforgottensolution.org).
See full text of their letter to the UN here. The giant walking trees will hand it over today (Friday) at 3 pm Pacific in Duboce Park, Lower Haight, San Francisco.
Photos of the trees featured at summit events this week are available at this link.
Actor Alec Baldwin and renowned scientist Jane Goodall are featured in a new video on the forgotten solution, also released today.