The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, pleaded on Wednesday for the signing of “a peace treaty” with nature, on the first day of the United Nations conference on biodiversity (COP15). According to him, this protection of life on Earth will require significant financial resources, but also a more effective fight against the climate crisis.
“Humanity’s war against nature is ultimately a war against ourselves. This is why I call for a peace treaty with nature, an ambitious agreement for the protection of biodiversity with targeted and quantified objectives to attack the roots of the causes of this destruction”, insisted Mr. Guterres , as part of a press briefing held at the Palais des congrès de Montréal.
Not only do governments need to do more to put the planet “on the road to recovery”, but the financial sector and private companies must also turn to a “sustainable” business model, he added. “Banks and financial institutions in general need to accelerate their shifts from financing fossil fuels to financing the green economy. It won’t happen overnight, but you have to have concrete goals. »
In the same breath, the UN Secretary General underlined the importance of providing “significant financial support” to enable developing countries to implement measures to protect natural ecosystems. “Without a significant mobilization of funds, from various sources, it will not be possible for developing countries to preserve biodiversity commensurate with the urgency of the situation,” argued Mr. Guterres.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, funding for “nature-based solutions” is essential to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis. However, at present, the financial flows in favor of these solutions represent only 154 billion dollars per year, i.e. less than half of the 384 billion dollars of annual investments necessary by 2025 and only a third investments needed by 2030 ($484 billion per year).
A coalition of Southern nations has called for at least $100 billion per year for biodiversity, as much as for climate, and to gradually increase this amount to reach $700 billion per year by 2030. This issue financing will be at the heart of the negotiations at COP15, which should in theory end on December 19 with the signing of a global agreement with a view to achieving objectives for the protection of biodiversity by 2030.
The climate issue also remains closely linked to that of biodiversity, António Guterres insisted on Wednesday. However, according to him, the most recent UN climate conference (COP27) did not make it possible to make major progress in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He therefore called for a burst of ambition to implement climate policies which will also be beneficial for the protection of biodiversity.
Difficult negotiations
For the moment, however, the negotiations of the 196 signatory countries of the Convention on Biological Diversity promise to be difficult. According to the most recent version of the negotiating text, which was made public on Wednesday morning, there are still many points to be settled.
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the three days of negotiations that preceded the opening of COP15 did not allow substantial progress to be made. This is the case with the objective of protecting 30% of natural terrestrial and marine environments by 2030, which has yet to be adopted.
States must also agree on ways to restore ecosystems degraded by human activity, stem plastic pollution and reduce the risk posed by invasive species around the world. The Montreal negotiations should also make it possible to make progress in terms of reducing subsidies for projects harmful to biodiversity.
“Everyone is talking about compromise, but we are not moving fast enough,” lamented Inger Andersen, the executive director of the United Nations program for the environment.
In this context, António Guterres once again used very harsh language on Wednesday, evoking our “war” against nature and decrying the impacts of pollution caused in particular by pesticides and plastic. Do you feel like you are being heard, a reporter asked him. “It’s not easy for me to judge whether I’m being listened to or not. But I will be harder and harder in the face of practices that represent suicide for humanity, ”replied the Secretary General of the United Nations.