Britain says 100 countries have committed to ending deforestation
More than 100 countries have come together at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow and pledged to end deforestation by 2030, the British government announced on Monday.
Deforestation is the removal of a wide swath of trees from an area that is then converted to non-forest use, a practice that scientists say is fueling climate change. Carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, is absorbed by forests, but they are being cleared out around the world because of the high demand for wood and pastoral land.
The countries that committed to ending deforestation are home to more than 85 percent of the Earth's forests, and include the United States, Brazil, China, Colombia, Congo, Russia, and Indonesia. More than $19 billion in public and private funds have been pledged for the plan, The Associated Press reports.
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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