UNDP, Climate Focus, UN-REDD, Meridian Explore Forest Finance Opportunities

Meridian is pleased to share a report co-written with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Climate Focus on takeaways from this year’s New York Climate Week. The report outlines forest finance opportunities for reaching and enhancing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that emerged from a Climate Week event that featured three international governments. 

The event sponsors – Meridian Institute, Climate Focus, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations REDD Programme (UN-REDD) – convened the group and co-wrote this report to share specific tools and promising strategies countries are implementing across the globe to tackle deforestation. Meridian Institute led on the process design for this event, and the Master of Ceremonies was John Ehrmann, Senior Fellow at Meridian Institute.

Addressing deforestation and forest degradation is crucial for achieving countries’ climate and biodiversity goals, as well as for meeting global climate commitments. New research from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Climate Focus finds that not only are we currently off-track to meeting forest goals and losing forests at alarming rates, but forests are also underrepresented in nationally determined contributions (NDCs). 

Promising steps are being taken, however. Countries including Peru and Ghana are implementing forest-sector strategies that prove forest solutions are possible. In addition, UN Climate Promise, the NDC 3.0 Navigator, UNDP-Climate Focus guidance, and the Emerging Forest Finance Instruments are tools available to support countries in bridging the forest finance gap and reaching their NDCs. Read the report to learn more!