This issue is alarmingly serious. Our planet is warming and destroying species at an alarming rate. Two global conferences in the last two months have brought people from around the world together on a common theme: climate and biodiversity. The challenges in both areas are symptoms of the same problem: the unsustainability of our production and consumption patterns. As difficult as the negotiations are, they are essential for global understanding, consensus and swift action.
As the year draws to a close, global attention has focused on a call to action: we need to urgently address climate change and halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
The global climate talks, commonly known as the climate COP (Conference of the Parties), bring together representatives from countries around the world to address and agree on a range of climate change issues, including mitigation – how to reduce global emissions, adaptation – helping countries prepare for an increasing number of adverse effects of climate change, and financing – who pays for what.
The climate COPs were attended by between thirty and forty thousand registered participants, including leaders from over 100 countries, tens of thousands of delegates, tens of thousands of observers (such as civil society and youth representatives) and thousands of journalists. The outcome of intense negotiations at COPs is always the result of compromise. However, these talks help to outline a global vision and trajectory in which all countries and different stakeholders, including youth and indigenous communities, have a voice and can reach out to audiences around the world.
Main results of the informal meeting of environment ministers |
From COP26 to COP27: a step forward?
The climate COP in Glasgow (COP26) in 2021 aimed to put the world on a zero net emissions pathway by 2050 and to keep the 1.5 degrees of warming, first determined by the Paris Agreement in the context of COP21 in 2015, within the margins. To achieve these goals, countries agreed, among other things, on a series of decisions and actions based on the Paris Agreement.
With the Glasgow Compact, COP26 highlighted the emergency, called for accelerated action, phasing out coal-fired electricity and phasing out subsidies for “inefficient” fossil fuels. The Pact also called for increased support for adaptation and a pledge to focus on loss and damage at the next conference. Other agreements and announcements were made at COP26 on forests, methane, cars and private finance. Despite its shortcomings and compromises, progress in the negotiations was tangible and kept the 1.5 degree target alive.
A year later, COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, was held in November in a completely different global context and reality. It was set against the backdrop of war in Ukraine, high energy prices, with energy supply security issues, high inflation rates, affecting Europeans in a post-pandemic economy, the fragility of the economy and the catastrophic effects of climate change.
The last-minute global optimism in Glasgow was no longer present in Sharm el-Sheikh. Many participants, including European Commission Vice-President Franz Timmermans, concluded that the need for urgent and drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions is not matched by concrete measures and commitments expressed by countries at COP27. In their own words, “we face a moral dilemma. Because this agreement is not enough to achieve mitigation”.
At the same time, countries agreed to create a new fund to help the most vulnerable countries affected by loss and damage due to the effects of climate change. The questions of who will pay and how much, who will benefit and who decides remain open. Despite the current context, Timmermans reconfirmed the EU’s position and commitment to achieving its climate and environmental objectives, as well as the EU’s continued support for the most vulnerable. Our current reality makes urgent and decisive climate action all the more necessary.
COP15 on biodiversity: What is at stake?
Representatives from around the world met again in December, this time in Montreal, Canada, to agree on global action to protect nature. The world has been losing its biological diversity at an alarming rate and the decline is accelerating. Around one million species now face extinction and many ecosystems, vital to the planet and our well-being, are on the brink of irreversible damage. For the sake of current and future generations, we urgently need to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by restoring natural areas in Europe and around the world.
The current COP on biodiversity, commonly known as COP15 (as it is the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity), aims to establish a post-2020 global framework for biodiversity. The framework sets out 21 targets, including the target of protecting 30% of our planet by 2030. It also recognises the need for urgent global action, but also stresses the need to transform our economic, social and financial models to halt and reverse current trends.
Specifically, action is about protecting and restoring more land and marine areas and tackling unsustainable activities in key sectors such as agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
Whether we succeed in reversing trends will depend on what we do on the ground. For example, the 30% targeted for protection must include global biodiversity hotspots. It also matters how these areas are protected. Protection systems must allow nature to recover. These areas can also be our greatest ally in reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by serving as carbon sinks and addressing the negative effects of climate change.
Addressing our use of resources
Whether at the COP on climate or at the COP on biodiversity, we are discussing the same problem and the same solution. Climate change and biodiversity loss are two symptoms of the same disease.
In Europe and globally we consume more resources than our planet can provide. The way we produce the goods and services we consume is causing climate change and degrading the natural environment. The recent crises have also shed light on the existing and unfortunately growing inequalities in terms of benefits on the one hand, and impacts on health, climate vulnerabilities and livelihoods at risk on the other.
Today, the costs of climate change and environmental degradation may be affecting some of us more than others. However, we are all affected and, in the long term, these effects will increase unless we use this crucial decade to reverse current trends. These POPs urge everyone to take bold action and show solidarity with all life on Earth.
Another future is possible. We can adapt and adopt new habits and build new systems. Together we can write a different story for our planet where we all benefit from a healthier nature and a stable climate and where we have succeeded in minimising risks and impacts. In 2030 we can be one step closer to that future.
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