100+ organizations voice concern at low ambition of biodiversity negotiations
This article was originally published by WWF
The IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille, France © WWF
Organizations representing all corners of society from around the world have come together to issue an unprecedented joint call for governments to strengthen a draft global biodiversity agreement.
The post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework is currently being negotiated by governments under the auspices of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. It presents a once-in-a-decade opportunity for the world to secure a global agreement to halt and reverse the loss of nature, but the pace of negotiations has been slow and lacking in ambition.
The growing concern from leading organizations, including Business for Nature, is over the lack of ambition displayed by governments negotiating the agreement. NGOs, faith groups, local and regional governments, Indigenous Peoples, academics, youth, business coalitions and artists are united in calling for governments to deliver an ambitious agreement at COP15 that reverses biodiversity loss to secure a nature-positive world by 2030.
The joint call to action was discussed today at a launch event, convened by non-state actors at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, taking place in Marseille, France. Speakers at the event include Inger Anderson, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme; Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International; Lucy Mulenkei, Executive Director, Indigenous Information Network; Eva Zabey, Executive Director, Business for Nature and Sofia Sprechmann, Secretary General of Care International.
“This is our best chance to build a nature-positive future. An ambitious, understandable and actionable Global Biodiversity Framework will give businesses the political certainty they need to scale and speed up action.
Our collective mission must be clear: reverse nature loss by 2030. The targets must be transformative: align all financial flows to a nature-positive world and eliminate and redirect harmful subsidies.”
Human activities are causing a catastrophic loss of biodiversity, with one million species now threatened by extinction. This destruction of nature undermines its ability to support us, placing human health and livelihoods at risk.
The signatories, which include leading academics, stress that reversing biodiversity loss is a moral responsibility, but it will also help avoid future pandemics, fight climate change and land degradation, and enhance environmental security. Continued loss of nature threatens not only half of global GDP, but also our opportunities to uphold human rights, and reduce social and gender inequalities.
The strong presence of humanitarian and development organizations among the signatories reflects biodiversity loss’ role in undermining human security and the need for connected action for nature and people.
Crucially, the call to governments highlights the commitments made by many world leaders in the past year to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, through the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature and the G7 2030 Nature Compact. Leaders are called on to deliver an ambitious global biodiversity agreement which acts on these commitments.
To secure a nature-positive world by 2030, governments are urged to include a nature-positive mission in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, and to ensure a rights-based approach, including to nature-based solutions and to conserving 30% of land, freshwater and seas by 2030. Business for Nature is also asking for nature to be valued and embedding within all decision-making and for harmful subsidies and incentives to be eliminated or redirected.
Governments are further called on to ensure the final agreement tackles the drivers of biodiversity loss - including unsustainable agriculture and food systems, forestry, fisheries, infrastructure, and extractives - by securing a just transition that halves the footprint of production and consumption by 2030. Other key areas of the draft agreement that need strengthening include ensuring adequate financial resources and an effective implementation mechanism.