United Nations biodiversity talks get underway in Geneva tomorrow, Monday, with global efforts to cut plastic, agricultural pollution, wilderness protection and aspirations to live "in harmony with nature" set to dominate the negotiations.
Almost 200 countries are due to adopt a global framework this year to safeguard nature from human destruction by the mid-21st century, with a key milestone of 30 percent of "wild spaces" to be protected by 2030.
The aim of the talks is also to safeguard the "services" nature supplies, such as the air we breathe, the water we drink and the soil that yields the food we eat.
The meeting in Geneva will set the stage for a crucial UN biodiversity summit, that was initially due to be held in China in 2020 but postponed several times, and which is now expected to take place at the end of August.
According to Nature Conservancy, the Geneva talks are seen as a chance to strengthen a draft global biodiversity agreement "that many observers feel currently lacks the teeth needed to meaningfully address interconnected biodiversity and climate crises that cannot be solved in isolation."
It’s time for governments to step up and stop the biodiversity crisis. For less than 1% of global GDP, we can get nearly halfway there with no new funding. https://t.co/3Av6ctHszX #NatureNow #COP15 pic.twitter.com/xyG2yifLYf
— The Nature Conservancy (@nature_org) March 11, 2022
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Climate change, biodiversity loss
For years, campaigners have called for a deal on halting the loss of biodiversity similar to what was defined at the COP21 Paris Climate Agreement in 2015.
Previous efforts to halt the continuing degradation of the planet's biodiversity have fallen short, with countries having failed to meet previous biodiversity targets set in 2010.
Despite often being overshadowed by the combat against climate change, the plight of the natural world is no less catastrophic.
Intensive agriculture has depleted soil fertility and polluted waterways. The world's oceans have been overfished. Plastics and other pollutants have invaded ecosystems, threatening global health.
In February, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that nine percent of all the world's species will likely be "at high risk" of extinction even if global warming is capped at the target of 1.5°Celsius.
UN biodiversity experts have raised fears that the world is entering its sixth era of mass extinction in the last half-billion years.
We released the 2nd part of our Sixth Assessment Report on impacts, adaptation & vulnerability to #climatechange on 28 Feb.#Climatechange: a threat to human wellbeing & health of the planet.
— IPCC (@IPCC_CH) March 10, 2022
Taking action now can secure our future.
Read the report ➡️ https://t.co/31XeCHTWQN pic.twitter.com/pchA8MzVdG
Twenty goals by 2030
However, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity is aiming to reverse the downward trend with its global framework.
The latest round of negotiations began in Rome in February 2020 but was swiftly brought to a halt by the Covid-19 pandemic, although online sessions continued and a draft text was completed in 2021.
It is hoped this weeks' in-person gathering in Geneva will move the process closer to a global deal at the UN's COP15 summit in China.
The draft outlines some twenty targets for 2030, including the high-profile ambition to protect at least 30 percent of the Earth's land and water habitats.
It also outlines objectives on reducing the amount of fertilisers and pesticides released into the environment and cutting at least $500 billion per year of subsidies harmful to the stability ecosystems.
