Simple plan could raise the billions needed to stem biodiversity loss
New ScientistOCT 20 2024
The UN's 16th biodiversity summit began on Monday in Cali, Columbia, with nearly 200 nations in attendance and approx. 23K delegates registered to participate.
The summit is the sixteenth Conference of Parties (COP16) of the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity. The convention was signed in 1992 with the objective of conserving biological diversity and ensuring "fair and equitable sharing" of utilizing genetic resources.
The conference is its first since the Kunming-Montreal Global Diversity Framework was signed in 2022, containing 23 targets including to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030, and to "substantially" increase the area of all natural ecosystems via maintenance, enhancement, or restoration by 2050.
With natural habitats across the world vanishing at a dangerous speed, now more than ever the international community must come together and commit to solutions to this environmental crisis. Biodiversity is integral to the Earth's sustainability – without immediate action it may be too late for this alarming trend to ever be reversed.