CGD in the News

Climate Talks: Rich Countries Should Pay to Keep Tropical Forests Standing (The Guardian)

December 17, 2015

From op-ed:

We need to come up with innovative solutions to look after our planet, and the Paris climate change conference is the place to do it. By innovative we don’t only mean new energy technology and new green financing mechanisms. We need to reimagine tropical forests as a public utility like electricity, producing a service people and governments, including in the rich world, want to buy.

Forests are beautiful ecosystems of living organisms. But like your municipal water services and your local power company, forests provide a stream of services – storing carbon and cooling the planet – that most people get for free. Just as we pay for electricity services, and thus ensure their continuing provision, so we – especially in the rich world – should pay for the climate service that tropical forests provide. It’s easy to do in principle: satellite technology allows us to verify whether deforestation rates have declined in real time, and only pay for what’s delivered.

Read full op-ed here.