EMPOWERING WOMEN Actions on nature require actions on economy and society BIODIVERSITY AND POLLUTION
achieve equity and fairness among all people, present and future. These correspond with the principles underpinning the sustainable development paradigm, offering a translation mechanism to support coherent and aligned action among countries and global society, and the potential transformation of commitments to the levels needed by 2030. With a focus on benefits from nature to people, the sustainable development paradigm is about interactions among nature, economy and society, with benefits flowing up the stack and drivers flowing down the stack (see figure 1). Reframing those three actions according to this nature-economy-society heuristic can provide clear guidance for their implementation. ACTIONS ON NATURE Conservation and restoration actions are essential to slow and minimise biodiversity loss, and to halt decline. But evidence shows that without broader changes those actions are insufficient to achieve the goal of improving the state of biodiversity globally. Required actions on economy and society are incorporated in the Global Biodiversity Framework, but political deadlock, siloed approaches and vested interests raise nearly insurmountable barriers to success. As the world teeters on the edge of breaching critical thresholds in the global climate, there are three clear areas of action required to bridge the achievement gap for international targets
T he world is on the cusp of crossing critical thresholds in the global climate, with 1.5°C warming, and biodiversity loss, with fewer than 50% land surfaces biotically intact – interwoven with the first global pandemic in modern times, escalating nationalist conflicts, and the unknown promise and threats of artificial intelligence, among other factors. In 2021 the G7 science academies, citing the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, called on “G7 nations to integrate the multiple values of biodiversity into decision-making, and to pursue cross-sectoral solutions that address the biodiversity, climate and other linked crises in a coordinated manner”. Three ongoing assessments from IPBES – on nexus interlinkages and on transformative change (both due in December 2024), and on business reliance and impacts on biodiversity (due in December 2025) – respond to this call, and will advance guidance on concrete actions and pathways. But action must not wait. Foundations being laid today can be strengthened and expanded, to enable further solutions and seed transformation. BALANCING NATURE, ECONOMY AND SOCIETY The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, like the Sustainable Development Goals, expresses “stretch ambition” to inspire action at the scale needed. But countries face the dual challenges of investing in tangible, incremental steps in the right directions, while striving for transformative pathways to deliver the scale of impacts needed. Three broad areas of action are needed to bridge the achievement gap for global targets: first, the necessity of actively conserving and sustaining natural systems as well as their benefits and importance to people; second, a precondition of reversing the drivers of decline, without which success will be compromised – perhaps catastrophically; and third, the imperative to
By David Obura, chair, Intergovernmental Science-Policy
Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
DAVID OBURA David Obura chairs the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. He is a member of the Earth Commission and founding director of CORDIO East Africa, a coral reef research and conservation organisation. With 30 years’ experience in Africa and tropical regions, he is developing a new focus on sustainability and equity, linking challenges and solutions from local to global scales, and working with teams to identify pathways to a safe, just world for present and future generations. His work was featured in the cover story of the New York Times Magazine on 29 October 2023.
X-TWITTER @dobura and @IPBES ipbes.net and cordioea.net
84
G7 ITALY: THE APULIA SUMMIT — 2024
globalgovernanceproject.org
Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease