To succeed in building the same momentum against the loss of global biodiversity as that deployed against climate change, by means of concrete initiatives, in order to boost ambition before the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), was the ambition shared by all the participants in the One Planet for Biodiversity summit, organised on Monday 11 January by France, the UN and the World Bank.
These initiatives include the coalition for protected areas, accelerating the deployment of the ‘Great Green Wall’ in the Sahel and mobilising global finance, with the support of business leaders and NGOs.
“By achieving the objectives of the initiative [for protected areas, editor’s note] by 2030, 100 million hectares of degraded land will be restored. This is the capacity to sequester 250 million tonnes of carbon and create 10 million jobs”, said French President Emmanuel Macron.
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, stressed the importance of “working together” to protect the environment and health.
The fight against pandemics is the first line of EU action he mentioned. Recalling the links between the loss of biodiversity and zoonoses, he mentioned the presence “in nature of 1.6 million viruses not yet detected and probably connected to this link between the human species and animals”.
Working to mobilise alliances to promote sustainable forest management is the EU’s second act of action through, inter alia, “international development cooperation, particularly in Africa” he declared.
The third axis consists, according to Mr Michel, of “working to increase political commitment”. In this regard, he reiterated his idea of an international treaty to prevent and address pandemics.
“It needs concerted global action and local sustainable development. And just as we cooperate for our ‘One Planet’ we need to work together for our ‘One Health’”, added Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Green wall. Mr Macron announced that the Investment Forum for the Great Green Wall in Africa, which aims to accelerate investment in agro-environmental value chains in the Sahel, has brought together, alongside the summit, “over US$14 billion” for the period 2021-2025.
This is a new investment programme to support governments in the Sahel region through a partnership between the Green Climate Fund and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Ms von der Leyen mentioned the mobilisation of ‘Team Europe’ funds (European Commission, EU Member States, EIB) for this purpose.
Furthermore, the summit took stock of the ambition to give substance to the commitments for nature and people made at the World Summit on Biodiversity in September 2020 in New York (see EUROPE 12569/11). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang and Damien Genicot)