Make Bold Environmental Action Central Focus of Post Pandemic Economic Recovery, Speakers Urge as General Assembly Holds First Ever Global Biodiversity Summit
The COVID‑19 pandemic is a wake‑up call to the world to halt an alarming decline in its rich biological diversity, but it is also a unique opportunity to put bold and ambitious environmental action at the heart of national post‑coronavirus economic recovery strategies as the international community strives to fulfil the Sustainable Development Goals, speakers said today as the General Assembly hosted the first‑ever global summit ever dedicated to biodiversity.
The day‑long virtual summit — featuring pre-recorded statements by Heads of State and Government, ministers and senior officials from nearly 100 countries and international organizations — sought to build momentum ahead of the fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity, which was originally scheduled to be held in Kunming, China in October but was postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus. That conference aims to adopt a comprehensive post‑2020 global biodiversity framework as a stepping‑stone towards a 2050 vision of “living in harmony with nature”.
Signed by 196 countries since it was opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the Convention is an international treaty for the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources. But as many speakers today acknowledged, none of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets established in 2010 were met during the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity, which concludes this year.
Opening the summit, Volkan Bozkir (Turkey), President of the General Assembly, said that humanity’s existence on Earth depends entirely on its ability to protect the natural world around it. Yet every year, 13 million hectares of forest are lost, while 1 million species are at risk of extinction. Meanwhile, species of vertebrates have declined by 68 per cent in the past 50 years. “Clearly, we must heed the lessons we have learned and respect the world in which we live,” he said, describing COVID‑19 as an opportunity to do just that through a post‑pandemic green recovery that emphasizes the protection of biodiversity can lead to a more sustainable and resilient world.
António Guterres, Secretary‑General of the United Nations, emphasized that the degradation of nature is not purely an environmental issue, but one that spans economics, health, social justice, human rights and geopolitical tensions and conflict. “By living in harmony with nature, we can avert the worst impacts of climate change and recharge biodiversity for the benefit of people and the planet,” he said, adding that nature‑based solutions must be embedded in COVID‑19 recovery and wider development plans, given how the preservation of biodiversity can create jobs and economic growth while also tackling the climate crisis.
Xi Jinping, President of China, speaking as host of the fifteenth Conference of the Parties, said that the laws of nature must be respected. “We need to find a way for man and nature to live in harmony” in ways that balance economic development and ecological protection. He stressed the need to uphold the sanctity and authority of international rules, encourage green development and recognize that biodiversity is key to achieving sustainable development.
Prince Charles of the United Kingdom, who heads the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund, called for a new Marshall Plan to advance a blue‑green recovery rooted in a new economy and a “polluter pays” principle. Perverse subsidies, such as those for fossil fuels, should be tackled to make biodiversity restoration possible and to transform the lives of millions of small farmers and fishermen and coastal communities around the world. He added that the “virtuous circle” of nature is something the world’s indigenous peoples understand only too well, and their profound wisdom should be heard.
Archana Soreng, indigenous youth representative and member of the Secretary‑General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change, agreed that indigenous practices should be nurtured and local communities empowered as main stakeholders within decision‑making structures for biodiversity conservation. She warned, however, that expanding protected areas to cover one third of the world, as some are proposing for the post‑2020 biodiversity framework, could trigger immense human rights violations and constitute the biggest land grab in history, reducing millions to landless poverty. “Removing us from our land is deeply colonial and environmentally damaging,” she said.
During a virtual “fireside chat” segment, speakers emphasized in detail the link between biodiversity and sustainable development. Recalling a time when “we thought we could pollute our way to wealth,” Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity said that COVID‑19 — a zoonotic disease — demonstrates what can happen if nature is pushed into a corner. Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said that people around the world need to rethink the ways in which they produce and consume. She challenged the fifteenth Conference of the Parties to come up with targets that can be implemented at a global, national and community scale. Ana María Hernández Salgar, Chair of the Intergovernmental Science‑Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, said that it is time to pay attention to negative trends, “listen to the science and take decisions accordingly”.
At the start of plenary session, Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of Guyana, speaking for the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, expressed deep concern that the impact of COVID‑19 will exacerbate biodiversity degradation and result in a substantial increase in global poverty. He called on developed countries to increase their financial commitments to implement the post‑2020 global biodiversity framework in developing countries. Steadfast efforts must also be made to conclude negotiations for an international legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, he added.
Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, President of Malawi, speaking on behalf of the Group of Least Developed Countries, said that if current trends continue, 30 and 50 per cent of all species in the world could be lost during the 21st century, posing enormous risks to human prosperity and well‑being — and with least developed countries likely threatened by the worst effects. International biodiversity public funding to least developed countries should be doubled by 2030, in addition to capacity‑building and technology transfer for sustainable biodiversity conservation and restoration, he said.
Ursula von de Leyen, President of the European Commission, said that it was telling that a pandemic was preventing world leaders from meeting in person for the United Nations Biodiversity Summit. She discussed the European Green Deal, a road map for making Europe the first climate‑neutral continent by 2050, and the European Union biodiversity strategy for 2030 that tackles key drivers of biodiversity loss — unsustainable use of land and sea, overexploitation of natural resources, pollution and global warming. She called on everyone who is willing to join in with actions to halt biodiversity loss, adding that the community of those who want to move forward is becoming bigger and stronger every day.
The day‑long summit also featured Leaders Dialogues conducted via video‑teleconference. The first, focusing on addressing biodiversity loss and mainstreaming biodiversity for sustainable development, was co‑chaired by Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, and Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan. The second, on harnessing science, technology and innovation, capacity‑building, access and benefit‑sharing, financing and partnerships for biodiversity, was co‑chaired by Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Isabella Lövin, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Environment and Climate of Sweden.
( source and full article- https://www.un.org/press/en/2020/ga12274.doc.htm )
