Guardian

Humanity is on the verge of ‘shattering Earth’s natural limits’, say experts in biodiversity warning

Charles III

Donald Trump

Elon Musk

Joe Biden

Nancy Pelosi

Xi Jinping

Rishi Sunak

Kamala Harris

Justin Trudeau

Narendra Modi

Bill Gates

Pope Francis

Janet Yellen

Emmanuel Macron

Olaf Scholz

Angela Merkel

Yuval Noah Harari

António Guterres

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Barack Obama

Kofi Annan

Michael Mann

James Inhofe

Greta Thunberg

David Attenborough

Giorgia Meloni

Patrick Michaels

Jane Goodall

Bjorn Lomborg

Freeman Dyson

Metaculus

"[C]limate change is just a very, very expensive form of tax."

"I believe in climate change caused by human beings. What I'm skeptical about is the glib notion that it means the end of the world as we know it."

"The clock is no longer just ticking, it is banging."

"There is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change."

"The time for seeking global solutions [to climate change] is running out."

"The climate crisis is the existential threat. That's not hyperbole; it's a fact."

"[W]e are killing our planet."

Climate change is "above all, an existential crisis."

"Climate change is one of the greatest challenges mankind faces."

"If we don't take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon."

"Humanity is on thin ice — and that ice is melting fast."

"We haven't yet exceeded the bounds of viable human civilisation, but we're getting close."

Is Climate Change an Existential Threat?

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.

Reuters

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.

Dw.Com

So far, less than half of all signatories have submitted national targets, of which only approximately a third have met a UN deadline to publish plans to achieve these goals. Only five out of 17 nations containing 70% of the world's biodiversity have submitted targets (Australia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Mexico).

Voice of America

The US, one of the 17 "megadiverse" nations, is not a signatory of the biodiversity convention, while G7 nations Germany and the UK have not submitted their plans. The UK, alongside over 75 other nations, however have provided a technical document called a national target submission.

Carbon Brief

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.

The Nature Conservancy

COP16: What’s at stake for the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference

United Nations COP16 Begins in Calu, Columbia

United Nations COP16 Begins in Calu, Columbia

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Guterres

Mann

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United Nations COP16 Begins in Calu, Columbia

The Spin

The Controversies

Trump

Michaels

Harris

Sunak

Francis

Biden

Macron

Thunberg

Merkel

Attenborough

Guterres

Mann

Articles on this story

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