Some say delegates at the COP27 summit missed a key opportunity to recognize the connection between the twin nature and climate crises.
“We’re doomed if we don’t solve climate, and we’re doomed if we don’t solve biodiversity,” said Basile van Havre, co-chair of the UN biodiversity negotiations.
At the COP15 UN biodiversity talks next month, dozens of countries will meet to negotiate a new framework to protect animals and plants from destruction by humans.
The meeting comes as scientists warn that biodiversity and climate change could cause the world’s sixth mass extinction.
Destruction of nature also risks worsening climate change.
The oceans have already absorbed most of the excess heat created by humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions and, along with forests, are important carbon sinks.
“(Nature) is up to a third of the climate solution. And it is a proven technology,” said Brian O’Donnell, director of Campaign for Nature.
O’Donnell said oceans in particular are climate “superheroes”, which have absorbed carbon and heat, at the cost of acidification and coral-killing heat waves.
https://phys.org/news/2022-11-twin-crises-experts-nature-climate.html