Climate Change: Financing Global Forests is an independent report commissioned by the UK Prime Minister that assesses the impact of global forest loss on climate change and explores the future role of forests in the international climate change framework, with particular emphasis on the role of international finance. It also looks at the economic and policy drivers of deforestation and describes the incentives required to ensure more sustainable production of agriculture and timber in order to meet global demand while reducing carbon emissions.

The report includes new modelling and analysis of the global economic impact of continued deforestation and shows that the benefits of halving deforestation could amount to $3.7 trillion over the long term. However, if the international community does not act, the global economic cost of climate change caused by deforestation could amount to $12 trillion.

This comprehensive and detailed report makes a clear and forceful case for forests to be included in international carbon trading mechanisms. It calls for the international community to support forest nations to halve deforestation by 2020 and to make the global forest sector carbon neutral by 2030.

Table of Contents:

Preface; Background Papers; Acknowledgements; Executive Summary; 1) Introduction; PART I: THE CHALLENGE OF DEFORESTATION 2) Forests, Climate Change and the Global Economy; 3) The Drivers of Deforestation; 4) Sustainable Production and Poverty Reduction; 5) The Costs of Mitigation; PART II: FORESTS AND THE INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE FRAMEWORK: THE LONG TERM GOAL 6) A Long Term Framework for Tackling Climate Change; 7) The Current International Climate Change Framework; PART III: THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF FOREST FINANCING: THE MEDIUM TERM APPROACH 8) Transition to a Long Term Framework; 9) Effective Targets for Reducing Forest Emissions; 10) Measuring, Monitoring and Verifying Emissions from Forests; 11) Linking to Carbon Markets; 12) Governance and Distribution of Finance; PART IV: INTERNATIONAL ACTION, CAPACITY BUILDING AND SHORT TERM FUNDING 13) The Funding Gap and Capacity Building; 14) Conclusions; Bibliography; Index.