This summer of record-breaking heat waves and contentious elections around the world offers a valuable opportunity to reflect on the role individuals can play in driving positive change. By building coalitions and amplifying the voices of those most affected by crises, we can muster the courage and political will needed to overcome seemingly insurmountable global challenges.
Climate change and biodiversity loss are prime examples. As a longtime environmental-justice advocate, I have seen firsthand the profound impact of both on frontline communities and Indigenous peoples. These populations have been hit the hardest by these interlinked crises, which jeopardise their livelihoods, health, and cultural heritage.
The diverse land and marine environments that sustain Indigenous communities also underpin life and society as we know it. We depend on healthy ecosystems for food, shelter, water, medical advances, and disease prevention.
More than 50 per cent of the world’s GDP, estimated at US$44 trillion, depends on nature. Crucially, thriving ecosystems act as natural carbon sinks, absorbing up to 50 per cent of the greenhouse gases produced by human activities.
By threatening critical carbon sinks like rainforests and oceans, biodiversity loss exacerbates climate change, which in turn accelerates environmental degradation, leaving millions of people, as well as countless plant and animal species, increasingly vulnerable. The good news is that we can reverse this: by fostering resilient and diverse ecosystems, we can mitigate the effects of climate change and create a virtuous circle that protects frontline communities.
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By fostering resilient and diverse ecosystems, we can mitigate the effects of climate change and create a virtuous circle that protects frontline communities.
Amid the largest mass extinction in more than 65 million years, protecting biodiversity is more urgent than ever. Studies show that nearly half of the world’s animal species are currently experiencing rapid population declines, with Latin America and Africa facing the most severe loss of biodiversity.
While these developments paint a bleak picture, there has been some progress in addressing the biodiversity crisis. In 2022, at the United Nations summit on biodiversity in Montreal (COP15), the parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity approved the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
This landmark agreement, which required years of coalition building and advocacy campaigns, outlined a strategy to stop and reverse nature loss, including the ambitious target of preserving at least 30 per cent of the world’s land and seas by 2030.
Under the GBF, developed countries pledged to provide the Global South, where most of the world’s remaining biodiversity is located, with at least US$20 billion annually by 2025 and US$30 billion annually by 2030. If fulfilled, these commitments would enable developing countries to implement ambitious national biodiversity action plans, thereby safeguarding the world’s most climate-vulnerable populations.
Unfortunately, the world is currently far from achieving these goals. A new report by the London-based think tank ODI reveals that, of the 28 countries it assessed, 23 have failed to fulfill their biodiversity financing commitments as of 2021 (the latest year for which data are available). To meet their 2025 targets, these countries would need to double their contributions.
The gulf between climate pledges and action appears even more troubling when one considers that $20 billion per year represents only 1.1 per cent of the US$1.8 trillion that countries around the world spend annually on environmentally harmful subsidies. These resources, equivalent to 2 per cent of global GDP, support sectors like fossil fuels and industrial agriculture, which account for most greenhouse-gas emissions and drive biodiversity loss.
To protect the planet’s natural assets, governments must align their spending with their stated values. The European Union’s new Nature Restoration Law, which aims to restore at least 20 per cent of the EU’s land and seas by 2030, and all degraded ecosystems by 2050, represents an important step in this direction.
To be sure, there is much more to be done. Ahead of October’s UN biodiversity conference in Colombia (COP16), policymakers and climate advocates must continue to build global coalitions to close the biodiversity financing gap. They must also ensure that when it comes to conservation and restoration projects, the communities most affected by environmental degradation – especially Indigenous peoples – are included in the decision-making process.
Protecting and restoring biodiversity is crucial to supporting the recovery of our planet’s natural ecosystems and mitigating the worst effects of climate change. At COP16, global leaders will have the chance to create a virtuous circle of change. Ensuring a sustainable future requires that they seize this opportunity.
Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland and former UN high commissioner for human rights, is Chair of The Elders and a member of the Global Steering Committee at Campaign for Nature.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2024.
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