Ahead Of COP30, Scientists Remind Amazon To Almost Achieve Critical Points

UNSPLASH/Ivars UtinZuns ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Ahead of the 30th UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) to be held in Belem, Brazil, scientists again reminded the Amazon forest, the world's largest tropical forest, moving towards an irreversible critical point.

Amazon plays a vital role in regulating global climate and biodiversity. However, the increasing pressure due to deforestation, global warming, and extreme drought has pushed parts of the tropical rainforest towards a permanent ecological transformation.

"This process has taken place in the southern region of the Amazon Basin," said Jhan-Carlo Espinoza, a researcher of French-Peru descent from the French Institute of Research for Development (IRID), Anadolu reported on Thursday, November 6.

Espinoza said the Amazon Bolivia region experienced a increasingly severe and prolonged drought, and began to change to resemble the Cerrado savanna in Brazil. The drought broke records recorded in 2023 and 2024.

Meanwhile, the northern part of Amazon is facing an increasingly intense hydrological cycle characterized by extreme flooding and catastrophic flooding.

While scientists haven't been able to confirm exactly when Amazon will reach a point that cannot be restored, they agree there are critical limits that shouldn't be exceeded.

Between 17'20 percent of Amazon's forests have been cut down, equivalent to a combined area of France and Germany. About 17 percent of the others have been relegated due to human activity, "said Espinoza.

Over the past two decades, global temperatures have also reached their highest level since modern records began.

The combination weakens Amazon's ability to absorb carbon and disrupt water cycles. About 50 percent of Amazon's rainfall, explains Espinoza, is recycled by trees through evapotranspiration or evaporation of water from the ground surface.

The researcher said the trend now threatens the availability of water and food security in countries such as Bolivia and Peru.

The COP30 Climate Summit, which is scheduled to take place from 10 to 21 November 2025 in Brazil, will focus on efforts to realize climate commitments into concrete action and increased funding for vulnerable countries, amid geopolitical tensions and trade disputes that continue to test global cooperation to fight the climate crisis.