Why forests really matter for climate change

As world leaders meet at COP23, we explain why conserving forests matters if we are going to tackle global warming

Our climate is changing. You only have to watch the news to know that.

The past year has seen dramatic forest fires across, California, Europe, and even Siberia.

While you can’t exclusively blame global warming for these incidents, it hasn’t helped. Scientific evidence suggests that extreme weather events like hurricane Ophelia may have helped fuel fires across Europe.

Forest conservation has long been seen as a way of mitigating climate change, but across the world, natural landscapes are increasingly threatened by industrial development and urbanisation. According to the organisation Redd+deforestation primarily in the tropical regions contributes a remarkable 10% of annual global CO2 emissions.

As international leaders are currently meeting at the UN climate conference in Bonn, Germany, we explain why forests are in trouble across the globe.