(C) OpenDemocracy
This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
COP15 biodiversity summit and the wider climate emergency [1]
[]
Date: 2023-01
The two-week UN COP15 biodiversity summit started this week in Montreal. The meeting takes place in the shadow of COP27, and its dismal failure to tackle the crucial climate issue of decarbonisation.
This failure means we now need greater changes in behaviour than ever to reduce emissions and avert the most dangerous temperature rises. It’s here that the issue of biodiversity could perhaps play a key role: if the loss of nature, which people have been aware of for decades, can be linked to the wider context of the climate emergency and decarbonisation in the public imagination.
COP15 has a hugely complex agenda, with 20,000 participants and over 150 states involved. Many areas of considerable difference between the attendees are already evident and there is not too much hope of progress.
But the organisers have identified four key aims.
Get our free Daily Email Get one whole story, direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up now
Firstly, and arguably most importantly, is the adoption of an equitable and comprehensive framework matched by the resources needed for implementation. This refers to what is commonly called the ‘Paris Agreement for Nature’, known more formally as the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
The second and third aims – introducing clear targets to address overexploitation, pollution, fragmentation and unsustainable agricultural practices, and a plan that safeguards the rights of Indigenous peoples and recognises their contributions as stewards of nature – offer some degree of breakdown for achieving the first.
And lastly is finance for biodiversity and alignment of financial flows with nature to drive finances towards sustainable investments and away from environmentally harmful ones – a reminder that so much depends on funding.
One of the GBF’s key elements is the ‘30x30’ concept, shorthand for achieving protection for 30% of ocean and land areas by 2030. This would be a substantial step in the right direction towards fulfilling the requirements of the GBF, but is a very tough aim that faces plenty of opposition. A recent investigation by openDemocracy has discovered that the UK is set to miss its own key 30x30 target.
A serious attempt to achieve 30x30 would come up against the reality of highly profitable ‘extractivism’, the wholesale removal of resources – especially but not only fuel and non-fuel minerals – from the Global South to the North. This amounts to the extraction of wealth from the poor to the rich, as the price paid for these raw materials is usually too low to compensate for their loss.
It parallels the deteriorating terms of trade seen across the Global South in the early post-colonial era in the 1960s. Then, primary commodity prices fell as those of much-needed industrial imports rose, seriously limiting development chances for many of the weakest former colonies.
If there is any progress in Montreal, and few participants have high expectations, it is also best seen in the context of a wider perspective of global environmental challenges. On the issue of climate breakdown and the need for rapid decarbonisation, the recent COP27 in Egypt was a straightforward failure. This means that the one very obvious challenge of reducing fossil carbon pollution by around 60% by 2030 is going nowhere unless there is a near-revolutionary change in political attitudes and behaviour.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/cop15-biodiversity-summit-global-climate-decarbonisation/
Published and (C) by OpenDemocracy
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/
