HI SR98

Hawaii engages, endorses, accepts, and adopts the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF), a declaration created at the United Nations Climate Summit in September 2014 with endorsements from 200 entities including governments, corporations, civil society, and indigenous peoples.

The NYDF outlines ten global targets for forest protection and restoration with potential to reduce annual carbon emissions by 4.5 to 8.8 billion tons of CO2 equivalent annually, supporting the UN Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The ten NYDF goals include stopping forest loss, eliminating agricultural deforestation, reducing non-agricultural deforestation, supporting alternatives to deforestation, restoring forests, quantifying conservation targets for 2030, reducing emissions from deforestation, providing financing, rewarding emissions reductions, and strengthening governance and indigenous rights.

The Legislature urges federal leaders and the nation to embrace NYDF goals and the 2030 Agenda by making sustainable development the centerpiece of national social and sustainable policies.

Certified copies of the resolution must be transmitted to the President, Vice President, congressional leaders, Hawaii's congressional delegation, UN officials, the NYDF Platform Secretariat, and county mayors.