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Author Spotlight: On-Site Biochar Production for Woody Debris Incineration in Forestry
Published on: January 5, 2024
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Targeting climate finance for global forests.
Kemen G Austin1,2, Alice Favero3, Nicklas Forsell4
1RTI International, Center for Applied Economics and Strategy, 3040 E Cornwallis Rd, Durham, NC, USA. kemen.austin@tnc.org.
Nature Communications
|July 11, 2025
Summary
Meeting forest-based climate mitigation targets requires significant investment, but global coordination can double mitigation efforts at no extra cost. This optimizes climate finance for greater impact.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Climate Change Economics
- Forestry Management
Background:
- Effective climate finance allocation requires comprehensive data on mitigation costs across sectors and regions.
- Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) outline regional forest-based mitigation targets, but their cost-effectiveness varies.
- Current commitments may not fully leverage regions with low-cost mitigation potential.
Purpose of the Study:
- To estimate the financial investment needed to achieve regional forest-based mitigation targets derived from NDCs.
- To analyze the potential for increased mitigation through global coordination of climate finance.
- To inform future climate finance strategies and the development of enhanced NDCs.
Main Methods:
- Estimating finance required for regional forest-based mitigation targets aggregated from NDCs.
- Analyzing mitigation costs and potential under different carbon price scenarios (below $100/tonne CO2).
- Modeling a global coordination scenario for optimal finance allocation and mitigation delivery.
Main Results:
- Regions holding 70% of global forest carbon can meet their NDCs with carbon prices under $100/tonne CO2.
- Annual investment of $20-72 billion is projected to be required by 2030 to meet regional targets.
- A global coordination scenario could double 2030 mitigation compared to the NDC scenario at the same financial cost.
Conclusions:
- Significant cost-effective forest mitigation potential exists beyond current national commitments.
- Global coordination of climate finance can substantially enhance mitigation efficiency and scale.
- Optimizing finance distribution based on cost-effectiveness is crucial for achieving ambitious climate goals and informing future NDCs.
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