Goal 7 assessment

This November 2020 report assesses progress toward Goal 7 of the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF), which focuses on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation within the framework of a post-2020 global climate agreement. While the goal of including forests in the global agreement was considered met with the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the report identifies significant barriers to the operationalization of REDD+ and a lack of quantifiable detail in many Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

• The operationalization of REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) faces significant hurdles despite the existence of multilateral frameworks. While over 30 countries are in advanced readiness preparation, only a few have signed results-based payment agreements. Barriers include insufficient finance, program requirements, and a lack of de-facto country readiness.
• Financial mechanisms for REDD+ are active but limited in scope. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) signed results-based payment agreements with Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, and Paraguay by August 2020. The World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility signed Emission Reductions Purchase Agreements with Chile, DRC, Ghana, and Mozambique. Additionally, 50 countries have submitted Forest Emission Reference Levels (FRELs) to the UNFCCC, covering over 70 percent of forest areas in developing countries, though only three (Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador) list results-based payments on the UNFCCC hub.
• Forestry mitigation targets are increasingly present in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), but they often lack the specificity required for monitoring. Out of 165 countries, 116 included quantified emissions targets for the forest sector, but fewer than 10 percent of countries with forest objectives provided quantitative GHG or CO2 emission reduction or removal data. Furthermore, approximately 64 percent of forest-related GHG targets are conditional on receiving international support.
• Recent updates to NDCs show a trend toward increased ambition and quantification. Of 16 countries that submitted updates, 11 included land use and forests in mitigation targets. Specific improvements include Jamaica expanding commitments to include land use change and forestry with quantitative targets, Rwanda moving from qualitative to quantifiable targets for forestry and land use, and Chile expanding measures to include conservation, restoration, REDD+ development, and rehabilitation.

APA

Hermann, B., & Streck, C. (2020). Goal 7 assessment. Forest Declaration Assessment. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2020NYDFGoal7.pdf

Chicago

Hermann, Barbara, and Charlotte Streck. Goal 7 assessment. Forest Declaration Assessment, 2020. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2020NYDFGoal7.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hermann |first1=Barbara |last2=Streck |first2=Charlotte |title=Goal 7 assessment |publisher=Forest Declaration Assessment |date=November 2020 |url=https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2020NYDFGoal7.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hermann2020goal, author = {Hermann, Barbara and Streck, Charlotte}, title = {{Goal 7 assessment}}, institution = {Forest Declaration Assessment}, year = {2020}, month = nov, url = {https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2020NYDFGoal7.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }