Today, the Intergovernmental Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, or IPBES, released a major report detailing past biodiversity losses and prospects for people and nature. Governments and scientists worldwide agree we are exploiting nature faster than it can renew itself, and the threat from the loss of nature will be as big a challenge to the world as rising temperatures.
Dr. Cristiana Pașca-Palmer, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity and United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, signaled to Nature4climate:
“This assessment details the shocking deterioration of nature and wildlife. Climate change is already affecting nature all around the world and we are losing species at the fastest rate in recorded history. It also highlights that land-use change has had the largest relative impact on nature since over the last two decades. The Paris Agreement aims to limit global temperature rise to well below 2°C and to pursue efforts towards 1.5°C. Alongside the urgent imperative on the energy transition, the way we farm, use our soils, protect coastal ecosystems and treat our forests and other natural ecosystems could be the biggest single game changer we have to date for biodiversity, climate, and human security and well-being. Most of these solutions deliver critical benefits, such as water filtration, flood protection, and biodiversity habitat. Research shows that with changes in global land-use practices over the next decade, nature could provide more than a third of the emissions reductions we need between now and 2030 to keep global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius. This is essential to also bend the curve of biodiversity loss by 2030, the only possibility to achieve the vision of living in harmony with nature by 2050. These are solutions that are available today, with real possibilities for scaling. Do we need more evidence to make the changes we need? I believe it is high time for enhanced political will, for ambition and transformation in the way humans engage with nature. It’s time to let nature have its space to recover if we want her to continue to provide for us.”
