WWF and partners estimate that actions to meet their 30X30 Challenge can result in 30% of the “climate solutions” needed by 2030.
Part of the Global Climate Action Summit, the challenge also aims to encourage greater ambition from national governments through concrete actions from a broad range of stakeholders including businesses, state and local agencies, multilateral organizations, scientists and civil society.
Stakeholders are asked to, among others, halve food loss and waste, consume conscientiously and sequester one gigaton of carbon per year in forests and other natural and working lands.
11 June 2018: The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and a broad coalition of partners have launched a challenge to non-state actors across all sectors of the economy to take concrete action to ensure better forest and habitat conservation, food production and consumption, and land use, estimating that such action can deliver up to 30% of the “climate solutions” needed by 2030.
Known as the ‘30X30 Forests, Food and Land Challenge,’ the initiative was developed in response to estimates that the global food system, unsustainable forest management, infrastructure development and other activities related to land use, account for more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than the total global emissions from transport.
Manuel Pulgar Vidal, WWF, said action taken by non-state actors as part of the 30X30 Challenge can encourage national governments to further reduce emissions.
To respond to the challenge, businesses, state and local agencies, multilateral organizations, scientists, civil society and other stakeholders are asked to take concrete actions to: halve food loss and waste and consume conscientiously; sequester one gigaton (Gt) of carbon per year in forests and other natural and working lands; and enable better production of food and fiber by unlocking finance, providing tools to increase transparency, fostering public-private collaboration and protecting local rights.
Commenting on the initiative, Manuel Pulgar Vidal, leader of WWF’s global climate and energy practice, underscored that land-use emissions are the second greatest source of emissions, stating that action taken by non-state actors as part of the 30X30 Challenge can encourage national governments to further reduce emissions “using every resource available.”
In a press release, WWF also highlighted the need to engage indigenous peoples and local communities, identified as “among the most effective guardians of natural habitats,” and those “most directly harmed by the loss and degradation of forests and waterways,” and to protect their tenure rights, as a critical part of efforts to meet the 30X30 Challenge.
The initiative comes ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS), taking place in San Francisco, US, from 12-14 September 2018. [WWF Press Release] [UNFCCC Press Release]