It has been a big week for talk about tackling our destruction of nature. 鈥淲e need to respect nature, follow its laws and protect it,鈥� said China鈥檚 president Xi Jinping at a virtual UN biodiversity summit today. However, he stopped short of a biodiversity equivalent of his significant climate announcement last week, pledging that the country would achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
At the summit, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said 鈥渉umanity is waging war on nature,鈥� arguing governments should put nature at the centre of covid-19 recovery plans. Narendra Modi of India and Boris Johnson for the UK were among many other leaders lining up to declare the importance of protecting the natural world.
The summit followed a 10-point 鈥渓eaders鈥� pledge for nature鈥� signed by the EU, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Kenya, New Zealand, the UK and dozens of other countries. The promises included shifting to more sustainable agriculture and, vitally, setting 鈥渢ransformational鈥� new biodiversity targets.
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The reason for this wave of pledging and speechifying is a landmark biodiversity summit in Kunming, China, next year, called COP15, where governments are due to hash out new targets for 2030, on everything from slowing extinctions to stopping pollution. The pandemic-postponed event is the nature equivalent of the 2015 Paris climate summit.
The need for far greater action has been on stark display lately. Reports this month have shown all 20 of the biodiversity targets the world set for 2020 were missed, animal populations are down 68 per cent since 1970 and 2 in 5 plant species face extinction. 鈥淏y and large, we are not doing well,鈥� Elizabeth Mrema at the Convention on Biological Diversity on 28 September.
But will this week鈥檚 warm words make a difference to species being lost and habitats being polluted? Mrema has said the sheer number of heads of state speaking today is a sign of progress.
Robert Watson, former chair of IPBES, the international science group that last year warned a million species are at risk of extinction, says: 鈥淚t鈥檚 important. Given the COP has been delayed, having today鈥檚 summit keeps the issue in front of governments, the public and the business community. I thought the leaders鈥� pledge was extremely good.鈥�
However, the pledge was missing signatures of leaders whose countries are home to rich biodiversity, including China, the US, Brazil, Russia and Australia. Watson says it was no surprise Brazil and the US did not sign 鈥� their leaders have pursued regressive rhetoric and undone environmental protections 鈥� but the omission of China was disappointing, given it is hosting COP15.
The proof of this week鈥檚 goodwill will be in the targets agreed in Kunming. A of the targets floats the idea of having some form of protection on 30 per cent of the world鈥檚 land by 2030, which would double the current protected area. That figure was around 10 per cent in 2010 鈥� when targets were last set 鈥� so a dramatic acceleration is needed on that goal alone. And it is only one of 20 targets.
There are signs some governments are willing to act. On Monday the UK was one of several countries to pledge it would protect 30 per cent of land by 2030, up from 26 per cent in England today. However, conservationists told 快猫短视频 that while the move was welcome, far more work is needed to improve the health of wildlife in existing protected areas, much of which is in a poor state, and often worse than outside those areas.
Watson says success on stemming biodiversity loss is going to need national pledges, akin to the ones countries put forward on carbon cuts for Paris. 鈥淚t鈥檚 great to have global goals, but we need national action,鈥� he says.
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