COP26: World leaders pledges to reverse deforestation by 2030

London: Over 100 world leaders pledged to end and reverse deforestation by the year 2030, in the first major agreement of the COP26 climate summit, Glasgow.

Brazil, where stretches of the Amazon rainforest have been cut down, will be among the signatories on Tuesday.

The promise includes nearly £14bn ($19.2bn) of public and private funding.

Experts welcomed the move, but cautioned that an earlier agreement in 2014 "failed to curb deforestation at all" and commitments had to be met.

Cutting down trees contributes to climate change by depleting forests that absorb large amounts of CO2 gas.

Prime Minister of the UK Boris Johnson, who is hosting the global gathering in Glasgow, will call Tuesday's deal a "historic deal to protect and restore Earth's forests."

"These great abundant ecosystems, these cathedrals of nature, are the lungs of our planet," he will later say at a COP26 event, where world leaders will meet to discuss forests and land use.

The two-week summit in Glasgow is seen as crucial if climate change is to be tamed.

The countries that say they will sign the pledge, including Canada, Brazil, Russia, China, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United States and the United Kingdom, cover about 85% of the world's forests.

Part of the funding will go to developing countries to restore damaged lands, fight forest fires and support indigenous communities.

The governments of 28 countries will also commit to eliminating deforestation from the global trade in food and other agricultural products such as palm oil, soybeans and cocoa.

These industries drive forest loss by cutting down trees to make room for animals to graze or crops to grow.

More than 30 of the world's largest companies will also pledge to end investment in activities linked to deforestation.

And a £ 1.1 billion fund will be established to protect the world's second-largest rainforest, in the Congo Basin.

Professor Simon Lewis, a climate and forest expert at University College London, said: "It is good news to have a political commitment to end deforestation in so many countries and significant funding to move forward on that journey."

But he told that the world "has been here before" with a 2014 statement in New York "that failed to curb deforestation at all."

He added that this new deal did not address the growing demand for products such as bush-grown meat, which would require addressing high levels of meat consumption in countries like the US and the UK.

Environmentalist Dr. Nigel Sizer called the deal "a big problem," but some will find the 2030 target disappointing.

"We are facing a climate emergency, so giving us another 10 years to address this issue does not seem consistent with that," said Dr. Sizer, former president of the Rainforest Alliance.

"But maybe this is realistic and the best they can do."