(CN) — On the second day of a major United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow, world leaders pledged to end deforestation by 2030 and U.S. President Joe Biden pushed to make the United States a leader on reducing methane emissions and halting global warming.
Tuesday's announcements may end up being the most significant achievements at the two-week gathering of world leaders for this Conference of the Parties, an annual gathering of nations that signed the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
But this year's event is particularly important because it coincides with a five-year requirement for nations to deliver updated plans on how they plan to reduce carbon emissions. This year's meeting was delayed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It has been billed as a crucial occasion to get nations, especially the biggest economies, to adopt drastic policies to slow global warming. Scientists warn that the planet is on track for catastrophic warming by the end of the century unless nations do much more to cut down on carbon emissions.
The first two days of these climate change gatherings are given over to government leaders. The rest of the conference will see negotiators discussing and arguing over the details of rules, pledges and policies. More announcements and breakthroughs are possible.
Tuesday saw world leaders take the stage and sing a similar tune about saving the planet by investing in new renewable energy technologies and finding ways to stop polluting the atmosphere.
Outside the conference hall, protesters chided politicians for not doing enough to stop global warming and behaving hypocritically for arriving on private jets, getting escorted to and from the convention by gas-guzzling limousines and pretending that innovative technologies are the answer.
Nonetheless, the leaders signed pledges by which their countries will be held to account for in the future.
More than 100 nations, including Brazil and other major forest nations, said they will stop destructive deforestation by the end of the decade and take steps to repair past damage. This was seen as the day's biggest announcement.
Still, it remains only a pledge – as are most actions at these annual U.N. climate conferences – and certainly does not guarantee that forests around the planet will be saved from chainsaws in the future.
The countries signing the pledge account for more than 86% of the world’s forests and 12 nations said they would spend $12 billion between 2021 and 2025 on restoring degraded land, tackling wildfires and advancing the rights of indigenous peoples in developing countries, according to a British government news release.
Also, a number of nations and donors pledged to spend $1.5 billion to protect the forests of the Congo Basin, the second largest tropical rainforest in the world.
“The Congo Basin is the heart and lungs of the African continent,” said Ali Bongo, Gabon's president. “We cannot win the battle [on the climate] without the Congo rainforest.”
Deforestation is estimated to account for nearly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. Forests around the world, and most dramatically the rainforests of the Amazon Basin, are cut down to make way for farming.
Tuesday also saw Biden trying to show his green credentials as he pledged to reduce U.S. methane emissions from 2020 levels by 30% by the end of the decade. His administration also announced the U.S. is rejoining a coalition of nations pushing hard to stop the planet from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.
“One of the most important things we can do in this decisive decade is – to keep 1.5 degrees in reach – is reduce our methane emissions as quickly as possible,” Biden said.
The White House first asked other nations to join the U.S. in pledging to reduce methane emissions in September and since then nearly 100 other nations have joined the coalition, Biden said. But other major economies – including China, Russia and India – have not joined the initiative.
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