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Climate change: Indonesia forest loss released carbon equal to Ukraine fossil-fuel use in 2021, data platform shows

  • The emissions exceeded the fossil fuels consumed by Ukraine’s 43 million people, according to data non-profit CTrees released at the COP27 summit
  • CTrees’ AI platform tracks forests worldwide and could feed investors’ hunger for accurate data to evaluate carbon-offsetting projects

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An aerial photo shows a palm oil plantation in a protected area of the Rawa Singkil wildlife reserve in Indonesia in 2018. Photo: AFP
Martin Choi
Destruction of forests in Indonesia released more greenhouse gases than Ukraine’s consumption of fossil fuels last year, even after taking into account newly sequestered carbon in the Southeast Asian nation’s trees, according to data non-profit CTrees released at the COP27 summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

The California-based firm released data showing the carbon stored in forests across countries and jurisdictions on its online platform, which uses artificial intelligence to analyse satellite and aerial data.

This data could allow investors and developers of carbon-offsetting projects in carbon marketplaces, such as the recently launched Core Climate in Hong Kong and Climate Impact X in Singapore, to monitor changes in carbon stored in forests and evaluate the risks of their investments, CTrees co-founder and Nasa scientist Sassan Saatchi said in an interview.

“We built this platform [to support] the integrity of this whole exchange of carbon, either through climate finance, or through the voluntary carbon market or compliance carbon market,” Saatchi said. “Investors are hungry for accurate forest carbon data to verify the carbon in their investments. Project developers need data to make the initial assessments of project areas and decide whether to invest. Accurate data underpins all investments in nature-based solutions.”

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Nature-based solutions refers to actions that protect, sustainably manage or restore natural ecosystems to address societal challenges such as climate change, while also providing biodiversity benefits, according to the World Bank.

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