33. Notes that deforestation and forest degradation are responsible for 20 % of global GHG emissions, and emphasises the role of forests in climate change mitigation and the need to enhance the adaptive capacities and resilience of forests to climate change; calls on the EU to pursue its objective of halting global forest loss by 2030 an
d to at least halve tropical deforestation by 2020, compared with 2008 levels; underlines that achieving these commitments together with restoring 350 million hectares of forests, as called for in the New York Declaration on Forests, could reduce CO2 emissions by 4,5-8,8 billion tons per year by 2030;
...[+++]emphasises that without significant new mitigation efforts focused on the tropical forest sector (REDD+) the achievement of the below 2 °C target is likely to be impossible; calls furthermore for the EU to scale up international finance for reducing deforestation in developing countries;