UN: Humanity is a mass-extinction weapon

• Antonio Guterres lambasted global firms.
• It was for turning ecosystems into playthings of profit.
• He warned failing to alter course would be catastrophic.

Antonio Guterres lambasted global firms for turning ecosystems into “playthings of profit” and warned failing to alter course would be catastrophic.

He announced this at the commencement of biodiversity discussions in Montreal on Tuesday.

Nearly 200 countries have assembled for the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP15 to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The meeting will create a worldwide framework for conserving, protecting, restoring, and managing biodiversity and ecosystems for the next decade.

One million species are at risk of extinction, one-third of land is badly degraded, and fertile soil is being lost. Pollution and climate change are increasing ocean degradation.

Guterres: “We treat nature like a toilet.” “We’re committing suicide by proxy,” affecting jobs, hunger, disease, and death.

This summit is our chance to stop the destruction, he said.

Draft 10-year framework aims include a vow to conserve at least 30% of land and sea areas by 2030 (the “30-by-30” goal). Only 17% of the world’s land area and 8% of the ocean are protected.

Indigenous peoples, who preserve 80% of Earth’s surviving biodiversity, will be crucial to the new target.

Wealthy countries are under pressure to give underdeveloped nations more money for conservation.

The draft contract still has bracketed sentences, negotiators said, signaling disagreement. Previous versions of the accord included 900 brackets, but that number grew to 1,400 during COP15 discussions.

Some of the biggest issues are whether to include initiatives to cut climate-warming emissions, whether to establish a timeframe for phasing out pesticides, and how to ensure poor nations have financing to rebuild degraded areas.

The lack of world leaders, besides Justin Trudeau, has dampened expectations.

Trudeau emphasized reaching “30-by-30” He claimed Canada would invest $350m on world biodiversity.

Ecosystem deterioration might cost $3 trillion annually by 2030.

Trudeau: “Governments often disagree.” If the world can’t agree on saving nature, nothing else matters.

The biannual UN biodiversity talks have never received as much attention as the yearly UN climate change talks. Increasingly, people realize that safeguarding nature and limiting climate change are linked.

Healthy ecosystems like woods and seagrass help control global warming. Rising global temperatures imperil many ecosystems and animals that can’t adapt or move to cooler regions.

China chairs COP15, although it’s not hosting because of COVID.

China was supposed to hold the summit in Kunming but postponed it four times owing to COVID before agreeing to have it in Montreal.

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