Costa Rica expects global commitment to protect 30% of ecosystems

Lavanguardia

February 27, 2020
The Vice Minister of Environment of Costa Rica, Pamela Castillo, present in Rome on the occasion of the UN biodiversity summit, said there is a "general consensus" between the participating countries to advance their proposal to protect 30% of terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

In an interview with Efe, Castillo valued as "very positive" the atmosphere of consensus and "fluid conversation" in the first meetings of the signatory countries of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which this week in Rome prepare the framework document on biodiversity that will be ratified at the next October summit.

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The global framework to protect biodiversity negotiated in Rome

 Agence France Presse

February 27, 2020
Protect biodiversity and manage natural resources sustainably at a time when people are devastating the planet: the Convention on Biological Biodiversity (CBD) began Monday to examine an action plan by 2050.

Originally scheduled in China, which will host the 15th meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in October, the February negotiations were moved to Rome due to the coronavirus epidemic.

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Governments face pressure to protect nature in biodiversity 'super year'

Reuters

February 27, 2020
Governments are under pressure this year to agree on protecting at least 30% of the planet’s land and seas by 2030, not only to conserve endangered species and ensure food and water supplies, but also to help regulate an increasingly erratic climate.

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Momentum Builds for Protecting at Least 30% of Land and Oceans by 2030 at Rome Biodiversity Meeting

Campaign for Nature

February 28, 2020
This week, delegates from more than 100 countries and territories gathered in Rome for the first round of negotiations on a Paris Agreement-style global treaty to address the extinction crisis threatening one million species worldwide and the ecosystems on which humanity relies to survive.

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Commissioner Sinkevičius to open the Ceremony "World aquariums against plastic pollution" and to launch a new Global Coalition for Biodiversity in Monaco on 3 March

EU Commission News

February 28, 2020
The European Commission and the Oceanographic Institute, Prince Albert I of Monaco Foundation organise a high-level ceremony to celebrate the coalition of "World aquariums against plastic pollution" at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco on Tuesday 3 March, World Wildlife Day.

HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, and Inger Andersen, United Nations Environment Programme Executive Director will attend and speak at the event.

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IPBES Authors Present Drivers, Solutions to Land Degradation

IISD

February 27, 2020
In the paper titled, ‘How to Halt the Global Decline of Lands,’ the lead authors of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) ‘Assessment of Land Degradation and Restoration’ present five systemic policy barriers to land restoration and propose 10 solutions for overcoming them.

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Top 5 Ways Biodiversity Loss Affects Humans

The CSR Journal

February 26, 2020
All species, including humans, depend for their survival on the delicate balance of life in nature. Yet biodiversity—the diversity within species, between species, and within ecosystems—is declining faster than it has at any other time in human history. Although the world’s 7.6 billion people represent just 0.01% of all living creatures, humanity has already caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants. How we grow food, produce energy, dispose of waste and consume resources is destroying nature’s delicate balance of clean air, water and life that all species—including humans—depend on for survival.

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A third of plants and animals risk mass extinction

Climate News Network

February 25, 2020
Within 50 years, a third of all plant and animal species could be caught up in a mass extinction, as a consequence of climate change driven by ever-rising temperatures. What is new about this warning is the method, the precision, the timetable and the identification of a cause.

And – entirely felicitously – support for the prediction is backed by a series of separate studies of individual species survival in a world rapidly warming because of human commitment to fossil fuels.

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5 reasons why CEOs must care about safeguarding nature

World Economic Forum

February 25, 2020
At the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos in January this year, there was unprecedented interest in and commitment to fighting the climate and nature emergencies facing humanity. Although the world’s 7.6 billion people represent just 0.01% of all living things by weight, humanity has already caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of all plants. Supporting the concept of stakeholder capitalism, leading CEOs, government leaders and heads of civil society organizations came together in the Swiss Alps to galvanize support for an integrated nature action agenda across the issues of climate, biodiversity, forests, oceans and sustainable development.

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Climate change could be a 'catastrophic' national security threat, report warns

USA Today

February 24, 2020
Climate change could turn into a "catastrophic" threat to national and global security in the coming decades, warns a report released Monday.

"Even at scenarios of low warming, each region of the world will face severe risks to national and global security in the next three decades," the report says. "Higher levels of warming will pose catastrophic, and likely irreversible, global security risks over the course of the 21st century."

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Natural Climate Solutions: How 4 global companies leverage nature to tackle the climate crisis

GreenBiz

February 24, 2020
It’s 2020. We’ve officially entered the defining decade to tackle the climate crisis. As businesses ramp up climate action commitments through science-based targets and net-zero or carbon neutral goals, they are realizing there are untapped opportunities to work with nature instead of against it. Nature-based climate solutions will provide the lever of change to make faster progress toward those goals, and it just might help them go above and beyond.

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Nations seek biodiversity accord to stave off mass extinction

Phys.org

February 24, 2020
Nature experts and government delegates gather this week in Rome to hash out an international deal for endangered species, trying to avoid a mass extinction event caused by human activity.

Having been hastily relocated from Kunming in China following the coronavirus outbreak, negotiators from more than 140 countries have until February 29 to study a draft text.

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Biodiversity ‘fundamental’ for global food systems, at “heart’ of development – UN agriculture chief

UN News

February 24, 2020
Qu Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told negotiators on Monday that as agriculture and food systems are “at the heart of the concept of sustainable development”, they are central to deliberations regarding the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework, which is expected to be adopted at the UN Biodiversity Conference in October.

“Biodiversity is fundamental for ecosystems, for human beings, and is the basis of food diversity," said Mr. Qu, opening the second meeting of the Open-ended Working Group established by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which FAO is hosting. 

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We have a chance to halt biodiversity loss. The stakes have never been higher

The Guardian

February 24, 2020
Negotiations over a 10-year agenda for nature are about to begin. Our ecological future depends on the engagement of every global citizen.

The year 2020 has been designated a “super year for nature”, when the global community will rededicate itself to halting biodiversity loss with a 10-year action agenda, scheduled for agreement at the conference of the parties to the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in Kunming in China in October.

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