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Climate Change - Congo basin transcript
At the Gleneagles summit in 2005 the G8 leaders committed to helping developing countries deal with the impact of climate change and in particular recognise the special need to address impacts in Africa.
Since then the Stern report was published and highlighted climate change as a very real threat, and the need to stabilise carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a top priority.
As well as reducing emissions action needs to be taken to protect rainforests because they absorb and store CO2 from the air. But these rainforests are under threat from deforestation.
Congo basin is the second largest rainforest in the world. It’s twice the size of France, however 6,000 square miles of it are being destroyed each year -that’s an area the size of North Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Cheshire combined.
All countries need to act together to reduce this level of potentially harmful deforestation. If we don’t act now the problem will only get worse and there will be serious consequences for
- local people who depend on the forests,
- the natural ecosystem,
- and for CO2 emissions
What is DFID doing?
DFID is committed to conserving the environment and delivering on the G8
pledges to tackle climate change.
In March 2007 Britain announced a new £50m fund to help conserve the “Congo
basin”. This will help support proposals from 10 African countries to protect
this vital region and help ensure that local people’s livelihoods and rights are
protected, as well as helping them to better manage the forest and their
livelihoods in ways that help conserve the forest.
The UK also announced an £800m Environmental Transformation Fund (ETF) for reducing poverty through environmental management and helping developing countries to respond to climate change.
As part of this, DFID is providing support to the Clean Energy Investment Framework (CEIF) which promotes climate friendly technologies in developing countries.
To find out more about this and other DFID activities to reduce global
poverty visit www.dfid.gov.uk
DFID - Leading the British Governments fight against global poverty.