Launching a plan to unlock much-needed finance to protect rainforests, a group of 34 countries – including both developing and donor nations – have backed Brazil’s proposal for a new rainforest fund, set to be launched at COP30 in Belém.
The Forest & Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) – a coalition formed at COP27 in Egypt to raise ambition for forest protection – unveiled an action plan in New York this week with six proposed solutions to reverse forest loss by 2030 – among them the creation of Brazil’s Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF).
The TFFF would invest in financial markets and use the expected returns to pay forest-rich nations to halt deforestation. It aims to raise initial capital of $25bn in public funds and $100bn from private investors. Brazil is the only country to have pledged money so far, announcing a $1bn investment this week.
Guyana’s Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Outar Bharrat said at the New York event that the new six-point forest finance plan “underlines that real solutions are already within our reach, with a menu of options that can move forward together at speed”.
André Aquino, economy and environment advisor at Brazil’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, said the country has made “significant progress” finalising the details of the TFFF proposal, and added the country has “sprinted” to launch the fund at COP30.
“Where we are now with this is basically the design of the facility is mostly concluded,” Aquino said at the finance roadmap launch. “There are ongoing conversations on some aspects. Basically, we move now into full-fledged investment mode.”
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Lula says he is “optimistic” about US support for new rainforest fund
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The countries behind it include forest nations that could potentially benefit from the TFFF and other forest financing measures, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia and Vietnam, among others. It also includes wealthy donor governments such as Japan, Canada, UK and the US.
Despite the US’s roll-back of international climate finance under the Trump administration, Brazilian President Lula da Silva told journalists in New York this week he is “optimistic” about landing an American contribution to the TFFF.
The TFFF has already been endorsed by the eight South American countries that are home to the Amazon rainforest, the largest forest basin in the world. The BRICS group of large emerging economies have also voiced their support.
But while some wealthy countries – among them the UK, Germany, Norway and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – have engaged in the design of the TFFF, funding pledges have yet to follow. The Brazilian government aims to sign a letter of intent with donors at COP30 in November.
UK climate minister Katie White said at the event that establishing the TFFF and scaling up forest carbon markets is among the country’s priorities. “Rather than announcing lots of new plans, we want to work with existing initiatives, which can make the biggest impact in the smallest time,” she added.
Unlocking finance for rainforests by COP30
A new analysis by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), published during Climate Week NYC, estimates the annual funding gap for forest protection at around $67 billion. The roadmap launched by the FCLP presents six potential solutions to quickly ramp up forest finance by COP30.
Among them are a scale-up of state-level forest carbon credits and debt-for-nature swaps, which free up debt repayments for ecosystem protection. Taken together, the proposed solutions could raise as much as $50bn a year, proponents say.
The most potentially profitable option, according to the roadmap, would be enabling local communities to produce more sustainable products from the forest, such as wood products and organic foods. This “bioeconomy” approach could raise up to $15bn every year to protect forests, experts say.
The funding roadmap estimates that a fully operational TFFF could raise up to $4 billion by 2030. The fund’s concept note claims it could pay countries up to $2.8 billion annually.
At COP28 in Dubai, all countries adopted a target of ramping up efforts to stop and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030. But monitoring shows the world is losing forests at “frightening” record speed – not only due to humans cutting down trees but also because of massive wildfires amplified by global warming.
Developing countries, meanwhile, have argued that high government debt levels, limited access to multilateral banks, and unpredictable payments from donors make financing forest protection difficult.
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Forest finance plan backed by 34 countries endorses Brazil’s rainforest fund
Climate Change
Solar surge kept fossil electricity flat in 2025 as China and India made ‘historic’ shift
A record surge in clean power met all global electricity demand growth in 2025, preventing any increase in fossil fuel generation, according to energy think tank Ember.
Solar led the expansion, recording its fastest growth rate in eight years and meeting around 75% of new electricity demand alone.
Together with wind, hydropower and other low-carbon sources, the solar surge drove clean generation to rise by 887 TWh, slightly exceeding demand growth of 849 TWh and pushing fossil generation down by 0.2%, Ember said in a report published on Tuesday.
Much of this shift was driven by China and India, where rapid clean energy expansion outpaced electricity demand growth, leading to declines in fossil generation in both countries for the first time this century.
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“We have firmly entered the era of clean growth,” said Aditya Lolla, Ember’s managing director.
“Clean energy is now scaling fast enough to absorb rising global electricity demand, keeping fossil generation flat before its inevitable decline,” Lolla added.
China and India lead the way
A key driver of the global shift was a “historic” reversal in China and India, the largest contributors to fossil power growth over the past two decades, Ember said.
For the first time this century, electricity generation from fossil fuels fell in both countries in the same year, tipping the global balance.
In China, fossil generation dropped by 0.9%, its first decline since 2015, as rapid additions of solar and wind outpaced rising demand. In India, fossil generation fell by 3.3%, driven by record increases in solar and wind, strong hydro production and relatively slower demand growth.
This shift helped push renewables to around 34% of global electricity generation in 2025, overtaking coal for the first time in the modern era.
“China’s rapid expansion of solar and wind is meeting rising electricity demand at home while influencing the global electricity transition,” said Xunpeng Shi, president of the International Society for Energy Transition Studies.
“As the world’s largest builder of clean power, China’s progress is showing how growing demand can increasingly be met with clean electricity rather than fossil fuels,” Shi added.
Solar leading global energy supply growth
Reinforcing Ember’s findings, new analysis from the International Energy Agency (IEA) showed on Monday that solar has become the single largest driver of global energy supply growth, beyond the electricity sector.
In its latest Global Energy Review, the IEA found that solar PV accounted for more than a quarter of the increase in global energy demand in 2025, making it the first time any modern renewable source has taken the top spot.
The agency also reported that solar recorded the largest annual increase ever seen for any electricity generation technology.
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Ember’s Lolla said clean energy is “redefining the foundation of energy security in a volatile world,” adding that “it is already helping countries reduce exposure to fossil fuel imports and costs while meeting rising electricity demand”.
‘Antidote to fossil fuel cost chaos‘
As the war in the Middle East disrupts global oil and gas supplies, the head of UN Climate Change, Simon Stiell, said the current crisis underscores the risks of fossil fuel dependence and the need for more secure, domestic energy sources.
“Wars don’t disrupt the supply of sunlight for solar power, and wind power does not depend on vulnerable shipping straits,” Stiell said.
Speaking at the opening of the Green Transformation Week conference in South Korea, Stiell encouraged countries to accelerate the transition to clean energy to regain control of their economies and national security.
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“War has once again revealed the soaring costs of fossil fuel dependency,” he said, warning that volatile energy markets are “holding economies around the world in a chokehold.”
“Clean energy is the antidote to fossil fuel cost chaos, because it is cheaper, safer and faster-to-market,” he added.
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Solar surge kept fossil electricity flat in 2025 as China and India made ‘historic’ shift
Climate Change
Corpus Christi Projects Emergency Water Restrictions in September for Large Industrial Users and 500,000 Customers
Even hospitals are drilling wells as the region’s reservoirs reach disastrously low levels and ratings agencies downgrade the city’s outlook.
Without a shift in weather patterns, the City of Corpus Christi expects to enact emergency restrictions on water use in September, according to draft documents slated for release at a City Council meeting on Tuesday morning.
Officials at the annual Rio Grande Compact Commission meeting said that they expect river flows this year to be among the lowest in history.
Reporting supported by the Water Desk at the University of Colorado Boulder.
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