“We have just welcomed the 8 billionth member of the human race to this planet. This is a wonderful birth of a baby, of course. But we have to understand that the more people there are, the more pressure we put on the Earth,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme. “When it comes to biodiversity, we are at war with nature. We must make peace with nature. Because nature is what sustains everything on Earth… the science is clear.” Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme. Photo: Peter de Jong/AP Andersen stressed that the final text of any agreement must address “the five horsemen of the biodiversity apocalypse”: land-use change. overexploitation; pollution; the climate crisis; and the spread of invasive species. More than 10,000 participants are expected at Cop15, which is scheduled to run until December 19, with ministers arriving in the second week to help finalize the text. Draft targets included in the global biodiversity framework (GBF) include proposals to protect 30% of land and sea, reuse billions of dollars in harmful subsidies and tackle invasive species. Q&A
What is biodiversity and why does it matter?
projection Biodiversity – short for biological diversity – is the variety of life on Earth, from the tiniest bacteria to the largest mammals. The air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat are based on it – without plants there would be no oxygen and without bees to pollinate there would be no fruit or nuts. Scientists are still trying to figure out how the web of life fits together, and despite advances in technology, we can still only guess at the true number of species on our planet. But Earth is experiencing the greatest loss of life since the dinosaurs, and humans are to blame. The way we mine, pollute, hunt, exploit, build and travel puts at least a million species at risk of extinction, experts say. The sixth mass extinction in geological history has already begun, some scientists argue, with billions of individual populations lost. The five biggest threats to biodiversity are: changes in land and sea use; direct exploitation of natural resources; the climate crisis; pollution and invasive species. The extinction of animals, insects, plants and all living things has huge negative effects. Species must work together in harmony to thrive and provide the basic services humans need to survive. The services provided by ecosystems are estimated to be worth trillions of dollars. About half of the world’s GDP – equal to $42 trillion (£37 trillion) – depends on the healthy functioning of the natural world, according to the UN. The world has so far not met any UN targets to halt nature loss, but new targets will be set at the Cop15 biodiversity summit in Montreal in December 2022. Thanks for your response. If the governments want to reach an ambitious final deal, China must show leadership in the talks, EU environment commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius told the Guardian. China, which holds the presidency of Cop15, is the world’s largest carbon emitter – although Canada, the US and Australia have much higher CO2 emissions per capita. It will be the first time Beijing has taken the lead in a major UN environmental agreement. Cop15 was moved from Kunming to Montreal earlier this year due to China’s zero-Covid policy, but is still an opportunity for the country to showcase its “eco-civilization” credentials to the world, a high-profile piece of domestic activity of President Xi Jinping. agenda. There were fears that Beijing was trying to downplay the summit, touted as a potential “Paris moment” for nature, since no world leaders were invited. China’s Environment Minister Huang Runqiu will chair the talks in a similar role to Alok Sharma at Cop26 in Glasgow. “I think China’s role will be critical,” Sinkevičius said. “They also have a great responsibility as president [of Cop15], are in a difficult position. I am pleased with their commitment so far and they organized a ministerial meeting in Egypt during Cop27. We’ll have to see if that continues. If they want it to be a ‘Paris moment’ for nature, they have it in their hands, but they have to lead.” Biodiversity summit is key to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to the architects of the Paris Climate Agreement, who underlined the need to live in balance with nature at the summit on the weather last month. G20 leaders also highlighted its importance in their summit announcement in Bali, Indonesia. Governments have never fully met the UN’s biodiversity targets, and Andersen said a proper accountability mechanism – similar to the Nationally Determined Contributions countries submit through the climate process – was vital if the world was to meet commitments. of this time. “This is our third visit [agreeing biodiversity targets]. There’s been a lot of learning in understanding what happened the last two times and what worked and what didn’t,” he said. “Right now we’re on this trajectory of losing 1 million of our 8 million species on this planet. This is clearly not a trajectory we want to be on. We need to change the actions we need to take as humans: we need to eat and live in ways that are positive to nature.” Find more coverage of Age of Extinction here and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features
