Belgium is allocating €5 million to a fund to help protect the valuable rainforest of the Congo Basin, Belgian climate minister Jean-Luc Crucke (Francophone centrist) announced at the UN Climate Change Conference in Brazil yesterday.
‘Congo is our historic neighbour. We say to Congo, and to other African countries: we want to work with you to preserve and protect these forests because forests are important for storing carbon.’
The money will go to a fund called ‘The Belem Call for the Forests of the Congo Basin’. It is funded by revenues from the European market for emission certificates. This is a first, symbolic tranche; the amount may grow in the coming years, but this still has to be negotiated, says minister Crucke.
‘Game over’ for fossil fuels, says Belgium
A growing group of countries is demanding that the final agreement of the COP climate gathering states that fossil fuels must be phased out. Belgium has now also joined this front.
"This is the first time that various countries, from Africa to South America to Europe, are saying together: there is no other solution. The game is over. The fossil fuel world is finished,‘ Crucke told VRT NEWS. ’It doesn't have to happen overnight, but there needs to be a plan."
At the climate conference two years ago, one of the major successes was the inclusion of a phase-out of fossil fuels in the final agreement. But last year, under pressure from oil-producing countries, this again disappeared.