Bangla Press Desk: United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that global progress in halting biodiversity loss remains far slower than necessary. He said that for every dollar invested in nature conservation, $30 is spent on activities that harm nature.
An estimated $7.3 trillion was spent on activities harmful to nature in 2023, he said.
Guterres made the remarks while addressing the Leaders’ Summit at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, on Friday (October 16).
He noted that the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022, had established a roadmap for nature conservation. However, much greater efforts are needed to achieve its targets.
“Half the time to reach our 2030 goals has already passed. Yerevan is our moment of accountability,” Guterres said, urging countries to assess whether they are taking sufficient action to fulfil their commitments.
According to the UN chief, nearly 90 percent of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity have established national biodiversity targets. More than half have also developed national action plans to implement those targets.
Thanking the Armenian government for hosting the conference, Guterres said biodiversity was the foundation of human life. Nature provides food, water and clean air, but climate change, the spread of invasive alien species, overgrazing, overfishing and pollution are accelerating the degradation of nature.
These pressures are threatening the future of the planet, he warned.
Guterres said more than one million species are now at risk of extinction, adding that the world is moving towards a future in which human life could become increasingly difficult.Since 2022, an additional 1.3 million square kilometres of land and 6 million square kilometres of ocean have been officially designated as protected areas. However, progress remains uneven and insufficient to meet global needs.
Even if current national commitments are fully implemented, only 26 percent of the world’s terrestrial ecosystems and 12 percent of marine ecosystems are projected to be protected by 2030. The global target, however, is to conserve at least 30 percent of both land and ocean by that year.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also highlighted the funding gap in biodiversity conservation. He said actual financing remains far below the global biodiversity framework’s target of mobilising $200 billion annually.
To halt biodiversity loss, Guterres called for stronger leadership in three key areas: government action, financing and participation from all sections of society.
On government leadership, he urged countries to work towards the 2030 target of protecting 30 percent of land and ocean. He also stressed the need to phase out policies that damage ecosystems, promote circular economies and sustainable agriculture, strengthen environmental monitoring and transparency, and enforce existing laws.
Welcoming the Yerevan Declaration adopted at COP17, Guterres said it aims to make the conference a significant turning point in efforts to protect the planet. He also emphasised integrating biodiversity conservation into government policies, budgets and regulations.
On financing, Guterres warned that global financial flows continue to favour activities that harm nature.
“For every dollar invested in protecting nature, $30 is spent on destroying it,” he said. According to figures he cited, approximately $7.3 trillion flowed into activities harmful to nature in 2023.
He urged governments to end subsidies for environmentally damaging sectors, including fossil fuels, and redirect public funds towards environmental protection and sustainable development.
According to Guterres, annual investment in nature-based solutions must rise to $571 billion by 2030 to meet global targets for biodiversity conservation, climate action and land restoration.
He said governments alone cannot address the challenge and called on businesses to contribute to biodiversity conservation. In this context, he referred to the Cali Fund, which aims to ensure that companies benefiting from genetic resources and their digital sequence information contribute to biodiversity conservation and its sustainable use.
The UN chief also highlighted progress in renewable energy, noting that the costs of solar power and battery storage technologies have fallen significantly while investment in clean energy has increased.
However, developing countries continue to face heavy debt burdens, limited public resources and an unequal international financial system. As a result, they are forced to make difficult choices between protecting nature and meeting people’s immediate needs.
To address these challenges, Guterres called for increased domestic and international development financing, expanded investment by multilateral development banks and reforms to the international financial architecture. He said such reforms should also give developing countries a stronger voice in global decision-making.
Guterres identified participation across society as the third priority for protecting biodiversity. He particularly stressed the involvement of young people, civil society, women, Indigenous peoples and local communities.
He said the communities most affected by environmental degradation often possess valuable knowledge and experience in protecting nature.
“By placing Indigenous knowledge at the heart of biodiversity conservation, we can harness one of the world’s most powerful forms of AI—ancestral intelligence,” he said.
Guterres noted that traditional practices and knowledge developed over thousands of years could help restore humanity’s relationship with nature.
Concluding his remarks, the UN secretary-general reflected on his responsibilities and underscored the importance of protecting the planet for future generations. He said biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution are interconnected crises that require collective action.
“We must also become caretakers of nature,” Guterres said, urging world leaders to act now for their children, the future and all life on Earth.
Source: Public Radio of Armenia
