UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, delivered a powerful speech at the opening ceremony of the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal on Wednesday demanding a fight for the survival of the global ecosystem, “This conference is about the urgent task of making peace.” At the COP-15 conference, nations gather to address concerns and devise a plan of action for the UN’s biodiversity targets, known as global biodiversity framework (GBF), to combat climate change. COP-15 is markedly different from the COP-27 conference held in November as this month’s conference specifically addresses biodiversity while November’s conference in Sharm el-Sheikh addressed broader actionable goals against climate change.
The Convention on Biological Diversity is grounded by three objectives: conservation, sustainable use, and fair sharing of benefits from genetic resources. After a two-year delay and relocation from Kunming, China to Montreal due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s conference is the 15th summit during which attending countries will form an agreement on the following decade’s call-to-action. The conference was last held in Nagoya, Japan in 2010. The Aichi biodiversity targets formed at the 2010 conference pledged to 20 targets including halving the loss of all natural habitats and conserving at least 17% of inland water and 10% of coastal and marine areas. None of the targets made in 2010 were successfully reached.
Aucune excuse.
Finis les atermoiements.
Il est temps de conclure un pacte de paix avec la nature. #COP15 https://t.co/OudHaF6IRZ
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) December 7, 2022
Scientific evidence exposes the threat of a sixth mass extinction catalyzed by human-produced climate change as the output of pollution exceeds tolerable levels for the planet’s current ecosystems and biodiversity. “Nature is our life-support system” Guterres opened, “We are waging war on nature.” According to a report by the World Economic Forum, half of the world’s GDP depends on the planet’s ecosystems. Guterres quantified the deterioration of earth’s natural ecosystems accusing humanity’s complicit role in the destruction, “Today, one-third of all land is degraded, making it harder to feed growing populations…A million species teeter on the brink.” He then elaborated further, blaming the destruction of precious ecosystems on multinational corporations profiteering from the exploitation of natural resources.
Guterres continued to quantify the insurmountable loss beyond the ecological and environmental effects, “The loss of nature and biodiversity comes with a steep human cost. A cost we measure in lost jobs, hunger, disease, and deaths. A cost we measure in the estimated $3 trillion in annual losses by 2030 from ecosystem degradation.” The draft agreement known as “30 by 30” pledges to conserve 30 percent of the planet’s land and water by 2030. By the COP-27 conference in November, the draft agreement had gained support from over 110 nations. While ambitious, scientists and experts fear this goal alone is not enough to protect the vitality of our planet’s ecosystems.
Guterres then introduced three concrete pillars for action. The first calls for governments to develop national action plans encompassing all economic sectors including finance, food, energy, and infrastructure. This pillar calls to reform policies such as tax breaks that encourage the deterioration and destruction of ecosystems and instead prioritize solutions and technologies such as renewable energy and sustainable extraction of natural resources. He also called for protection of indigenous communities as they play vital roles in protecting natural landscapes.
In the second pillar, he emphasized businesses and investor’s best interests are to protect the natural resources that support the ever-globalizing economy, “The private sector must recognize that profit and protection must go hand-in-hand. Businesses and investors must be allies of nature, not enemies.” He also criticized false commitments often made in the private sector to environmental sustainability, known as “greenwashing”, calling for accountability across all supply chain components.
The third pillar calls for financial aid from wealthy nations. Funding these agreements proves the biggest challenge as many developing countries rich in resources, but lacking funds, are ideologically enthusiastic about these actions but are faced with logistical challenges such as budget constraints. They will require support from wealthy nations to help ease the financial burden.
The United States has not ratified the agreement therefore is not a party to the convention. Over 100 nations including EU nations, the UK, Colombia, and Costa Rica are members of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People advocating for the agreement while Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment of China acts as president of the COP-15. Brazil and Argentina have been accused of hindering the advancement of the agreements given their highly agriculturalized economies. President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vowed “Brazil is Back” at the U.N. Climate Conference in November citing a shift in Brazil’s commitment to prioritizing the fight against climate change. At a time when the world is exceptionally divided ideologically and concerning accessibility to resources and funds, Guterres asserted, “The deluded dreams of billionaires aside, there is no Planet B. We must fix the world we have.”
