"U.S. Joins Other Nations in Deforestation Accord At UN Summit"

"Moving to halt a powerful contributor to climate change, the United States has joined more than 110 corporations, civil society groups and governments to launch a global initiative to reduce deforestation sharply over the next 15 years, with the goal of eliminating the practice by 2030.

The “New York Declaration on Forests,” unveiled at the United Nations Climate Summit on Tuesday, would reduce between 4.5 billion and 8.8 billion tons of greenhouse gases annually, according to the United Nations Development Program. The effort would be equal to “removing from the road every car in the world, or not burning a trillion pounds of coal, or turning off every smokestack and tailpipe” in the U.S., the UNDP said.

Crafted as a marquee initiative at a summit long on rhetoric but short on concrete steps, the new deforestation initiative goes further than previous efforts, in the scope of participation and targets. Besides the U.S., participating states include wealthy nations that could help fund reforestation efforts, such as Canada, European Union members, Norway and the United Kingdom. Countries where deforestation is widespread, such as Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have also signed on. Corporate participants include Walmart, McDonald's, Danone, L’Oreal, agricultural giant Cargill and Asia Pulp and Paper, which until recently had been responsible for widespread deforestation."

Neela Banerjee reports for the Los Angeles Times September 23, 2014.