Stressing the interconnection between nature of the climate and biodiversity crises, the champions of Paris Agreement has urged world leaders to step up action to address the accelerating loss of nature by delivering an ambitious and transformative global biodiversity agreement at COP15UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal in December.
Pointing out that climate and nature agendas are entwined, four of the key architects of the Paris Agreement said “climate change is fast becoming a primary driver of biodiversity loss, while our accelerating destruction of nature is undermining its abilities to provide crucial services, including climate change mitigation and adaptation. As with climate change, it is the most vulnerable communities who bear the greatest impacts of biodiversity loss, from loss of food security and livelihoods to decreased climate resilience.”
President of COP21 Laurent Fabius, President of COP20 and CBD COP15 Action Agenda for Nature and People Champion Manuel Pulgar Vidal, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC (2010-2016) Christiana Figueres and France’s Climate Change Ambassador and Special Representative for COP21 Laurence Tubiana are the four leaders who made the call at the time of the ongoing COP 27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Biodiversity; calleing World leaders to
● Commit to prioritise the COP15 UN Biodiversity Conference;
● Adopt a global goal of reversing biodiversity by 2030 for a nature-positive world;
● Deliver a comprehensive agreement, with the necessary finance and technical support to drive immediate action on the ground;
● Secure a strong implementation mechanism, in the mold of the Paris Agreement, ensuring countries regularly review progress against biodiversity targets and progressively ratchet up action;
● Recognize the role of Nature based Solutions to catalyse biodiversity and climate action, towards a Net Zero, Nature Positive world;
● Recognize the importance of the whole of society approach and support the Action Agenda for Nature and People as a key vehicle to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework;
● Place the knowledge, rights and stewardship of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities at the centre of an inclusive agreement delivered through rights-based and whole-of-society approaches.
In a statement, they said that there was no pathway to limiting global warming to 1.5C without action on protecting and restoring nature. Only by taking urgent action to halt and reverse the loss of nature this decade, while continuing to step up efforts to rapidly decarbonize our economies, can we hope to achieve the promise of the Paris Agreement. To be clear: achieving net zero emissions by 2050 is only possible if we also act now to deliver a nature-positive society, they noted.
“Outcomes from the Glasgow Climate Pact placed nature squarely in the global spotlight, building on its recognition for the first time at COP25. COP27 must go further in recognizing nature’s fundamental role as part of the climate solution and catalyze concrete measures to protect and restore nature for the benefit of all,” the leaders said.
They noted that the upcoming COP15 UN Biodiversity Conference in December offered an unprecedented opportunity for the world to turn the tide on nature loss, in support of climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals. “We cannot afford to miss it. Bold leadership is required. Leaders must secure a global agreement for biodiversity which is as ambitious, science-based and comprehensive as the Paris Agreement is for climate change. Like the Paris Agreement, it must encourage countries to pledge and also ratchet up their action commensurate with the size of the challenge. It must be inclusive, rights-based and work for all. And it must deliver, through the whole of society, immediate action on the ground – our future depends on it,” they made the point.
“The world came together in 2015 to secure the Paris Agreement. We urge leaders to do the same now to deliver a strong sister agreement capable of securing a nature-positive world by 2030,” they urged.
Biodiversity supports everything in nature that we need to survive: food, clean water, medicine, and shelter.
