(...) Leading the way is Finland, which aims to become a carbon-neutral country by 2035, using a medium-term climate change policy plan and a national climate and energy strategy introduced in June 2019. Iceland and Austria want to reach so-called "net zero" by 2040, with Germany and Sweden "pushing" their carbon neutrality target to 2045. Most countries with climate commitments have set 2050 as their target (including Latvia), with the exception of China, India and Russia, whose target is 2060.

Of course, rainforests are being exploited in a rather irreversible way, but applying this problem to Europe is completely misguided. The world must pay incomparably more attention to tropical regions!

Writing for the World Economic Forum, Verified Carbon Standard CEO David Antonioli warned: "Programmes to stop deforestation must be drastically scaled up. The current loss of tropical forest area must be halted (or minimised as much as possible) if we are to meet the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming below 1.5 °C. The IPCC pathways for this goal are already complex enough: to reach the aforementioned 1.5 °C target, "deforestation" must be reduced by 77%...