‘Paris agreement’ for nature imperative at Cop15, architects of climate deal say

Reef balls, made from cement, sand and crushed oyster shells, near the Chula Vista wildlife refuge in California, protect against coastal erosion caused by rising sea levels. Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

The architects of the Paris agreement have urged world leaders to reach an ambitious sister deal for nature at the Cop15 biodiversity conference this December while warning that limiting global heating to 1.5C is impossible without protecting and restoring ecosystems.

On biodiversity day at the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt, Christiana Figueres, Laurence Tubiana, Laurent Fabius and Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, who helped design the Paris agreement, said that Cop15 would be an “unprecedented” opportunity to turn the tide on nature loss.