Climate Facts: Deforestation, land use change causing 15% of global carbon emissions

The complexities of climate change and its associated jargon can make it difficult to digest. TheCable’s climate quick facts will help to demystify these climate concepts through easy-to-understand and straight-to-the-point explanations.

Here are some to keep at the tip of your fingers:

1. About 15% of the carbon released in the environment is due to deforestation and land use change.
2. Large-scale commercial agriculture and local subsistence agriculture accounted for 40 percent and 33 percent, respectively, of tropical deforestation between 2000 and 2010.
3. To meet the goal of limiting global warming to below 2°C, carbon dioxide emissions need to be reduced by 45 percent by 2030.
4. Despite the reduction in emissions due to low human activities, concentrations of greenhouse gases continued to increase in 2020, reaching new record high, such that it was one of the three warmest years on record.
5. As of December 2020, over two-thirds of the world’s GDP was generated in places with actual or intended “net zero by 2050” targets.