COP15 is the United Nations conference which aims to lay out a plan to tackle the ‘unsustainable rate’ of biodiversity loss. Scientists, rights advocates and delegates from nearly 200 countries are gathering in Montreal, Canada to tackle this issue.
For years, experts have warned how climate change and other factors are leading to an ‘unprecedented’ decline in animals, plants and other species, and threatening various ecosystems.
Biodiversity refers to the many forms of life on Earth, from animals, plants and microbial species to habitats and entire ecosystems, such as coral reefs and rainforests. Biodiversity affects everything from global health and food security to the economy and the fight to tackle the climate crisis.
More than half the world’s total GDP – approximately $44 trillion – is ‘moderately or highly dependent’ on nature and therefore vulnerable to its loss, said the World Economic Forum in 2022.
In 2019, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services estimated that three-quarters of the world’s land surface and 66 percent of its oceans had been substantially altered. One million species face extinction, including ‘many within decades’ if serious action is not taken.
“The rate of global change in nature during the past 50 years is unprecedented in human history,” said the report, pointing to five key drivers: land and sea use changes, direct exploitation of organisms, pollution, climate change and invasions of alien species.
A draft of the new biodiversity framework released last year contained 21 targets to meet by 2030. They include reducing pesticide use, increasing funding to $200bn per year, and protecting at least 30 percent of sea and land globally.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/5/cop15-why-does-the-un-biodiversity-conference-matter