久久亚洲国产成人影院-久久亚洲国产的中文-久久亚洲国产高清-久久亚洲国产精品-亚洲图片偷拍自拍-亚洲图色视频

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Opinion
Home / Opinion / China and the World Roundtable

CELAC can lead revolution in carbon finance

By Emilio Sempris | China Daily | Updated: 2025-05-14 07:19
Share
Share - WeChat
Cycling enthusiasts ride through a park in Changxing county, Zhejiang province, in March. [PHOTO BY CHEN HAIWEI/FOR CHINA DAILY]

The road to solving the global climate crisis runs through the forests and renewable energy resources of Latin America and the Caribbean. As the world inches closer to climate tipping points, the Latin American and Caribbean region holds huge untapped potential in not just terrestrial carbon sinks but also pioneering a new financial architecture that rewards environmental stewardship.

Brazil will host the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) in Belem in November at a time that is ripe for transformative leadership, giving Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva the chance to emerge as not only a champion of the Global South but also a global climate statesperson.

The LAC countries have long waited for the developed world to fulfill their climate finance promises. But with the Global North faltering on its financing commitments — failing to pay the $100 billion per year pledged at COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009 and likely to do a repeat with the $300 billion promise at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, last year, the LAC countries must chart their shared course.

By embracing multilateralism, harnessing South-South, bilateral and triangular cooperation, establishing research and development centers, and using innovative carbon finance vehicles such as the proposed Tropical Forest Forever Facility, the region can transform carbon credits into tangible, sustainable development dividends. Under Lula's COP30 presidency, the region has the opportunity to initiate a new era of global carbon financing, proving that tropical forest conservation is an investable class of sovereign asset vital to a fairer and more resilient future.

If structured efficiently and fully adopted at COP30, the proposed TFFF could serve as a cornerstone of this vision. It has the potential to allow countries with rainforests and sovereign carbon credits — fully verified under UN mechanisms — to swap them for concessional finance, invest in green bonds, transfer for compliance or fund domestic climate action initiatives. Such a mechanism not only aligns with Nationally Determined Contributions — climate action plans submitted by individual countries to the UNFCCC under the Paris Agreement — but also with performance payments, markets and transparency under the same agreement. It offers the potential to unlock fresh carbon capital where it is most needed.

Honduras is an early mover in this emerging climate finance space. During Honduran president Xiomara Castro de Zelaya's tenure as president pro tempore of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), Honduras became the first country in the world to post sovereign carbon credits under the UN's Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation framework for 2023, totaling 11.8 million credit units of carbon dioxide, fully compliant with the Paris Agreement for the 2021-23 period.

These credits represent forest conservation and restoration efforts that have climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development benefits. Honduras now faces a unique opportunity: it could allocate 50 percent of its UN-verified carbon credit revenues to forest preservation, sustainable agriculture and food security programs while securitizing the remaining 50 percent to issue green bonds. These bonds could finance cleaner energy (solar and wind) infrastructure and grid-scale energy storage systems — a dual investment strategy that combines immediate emissions reductions with long-term climate resilience and energy independence.

This sovereign carbon strategy, as a smart policy, is replicable across the region as well as the world. Many countries across the region — from Colombia and Panama to Suriname and the Dominican Republic — have similar forest assets and climate ambitions. With a scalable framework like the TFFF, carbon finance can evolve from fragmented bilateral deals to a cohesive financial instrument to bridge the monumental climate debt developed countries owe to rainforest nations which have collectively received payments for only 4 percent of the 13 billion tons of CO2 emissions they have removed from the atmosphere over the past 20 years. Hence, pragmatic cooperation is crucial in this regard.

With the US' withdrawal from the multilateral climate change arena, BRICS, Canada, the European Union and Japan have emerged as natural, dependable partners for LAC countries, offering infrastructure, cleaner energy technologies, and much-needed carbon finance.

If a fair opportunity cost of $28 per ton of CO2 removed — less than half the price European polluters pay in the EU Emissions Trading System — is applied, the Global South would receive $350 billion in exchange for the climate stabilization services it has already rendered. Given the Brazilian ecosystems' critical role in global climate stability and the country's renewed climate leadership under Lula, Brazil is the natural convener for this initiative.

With regard to South-South cooperation, over the past decade, the China-CELAC Forum has matured into a multidimensional platform, spurring trade, renewable energy projects and joint climate initiatives.

The path is clear: by leveraging sovereign carbon assets, deepening multilateralism and cooperation, building and improving research and development centers, and using carbon finance to help the LAC countries, we can build a fairer, greener and more vibrant future. In doing so, Latin America and the Caribbean will not just participate in carbon finance; they will lead it.

The author is former minister of the environment of Panama, regional director of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, distinguished adviser to the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, and recipient of Harvard University's Howard T.Fisher Prize in Geographic Information Science. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

If you have a specific expertise, or would like to share your thought about our stories, then send us your writings at opinion@chinadaily.com.cn, and comment@chinadaily.com.cn.

 

Most Viewed in 24 Hours
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 日韩专区亚洲国产精品 | 黄色美女网站免费看 | 国产福利拍拍拍 | 性欧美f| 男女生性毛片免费观看 | 高清视频 一区二区三区四区 | 中文字幕亚洲另类天堂 | 毛片在线视频 | 男女免费在线视频 | 久久久久免费观看 | 三级网站在线 | 亚洲最新网站 | 性视频福利在线看 | 99久久精品免费看国产一区二区 | 中文字幕在线网址 | 欧美黄色精品 | 国产91丝袜在线播放九色 | 中文字幕日韩一区二区不卡 | 毛色毛片免费看 | caoporen个人免费公开视频 | 亚洲在线偷拍自拍 | 久久频这里精品香蕉久久 | 欧美日韩精品在线视频 | 久久中文字幕久久久久 | 欧美一级毛片在线播放 | 国产资源在线免费观看 | 精品精品国产高清a毛片 | 亚洲国产日韩精品 | 亚洲日本视频 | 日韩中文精品亚洲第三区 | 国产亚洲在线 | 欧美一级做一级爱a做片性 欧美一欧美一级毛片 | 成年女人毛片免费视频 | 97在线免费视频 | 天干天干天啪啪夜爽爽色 | 国产高清一区二区三区免费视频 | 中文国产成人精品久久一区 | 国产一级片网址 | 成人午夜在线 | 国产精品夜色视频一级区 | 久久久国产一区二区三区丝袜 |