Earth’s Biodiversity Crisis: 1 Million Species Face Extinction – NDTV
Earth's Biodiversity Crisis: 1 Million Species Face Extinction NDTV
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Earth’s Biodiversity Crisis: 1 Million Species Face Extinction
Cali:
The experts’ assessment is clear: humans are the major threat to Earth’s land, seas and all the living things they shelter, including ourselves.
The COP16 biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia, enters its second week Monday to assess, and ramp up, progress towards achieving 23 targets agreed in Canada two years ago to halt and reverse nature destruction by 2030.
The science in numbers:
- 2/3 of oceans degraded
Three-quarters of Earth’s surface has already been significantly altered and two-thirds of oceans degraded by humankind’s rapacious consumption, according to the IPBES intergovernmental science and policy body on biodiversity.
Globally, over a third of inland wetlands declined from 1970 to 2015 — a rate three times that of forest loss.
“Land degradation through human activities is undermining the well-being of at least 3.2 billion people,” according to the IPBES’s latest report.
But it highlights that not all is lost, and the benefits of restoration would be 10 times higher than the costs.
One of the 23 targets of the so-called Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is for 30 percent of degraded land, inland water, marine and coastal ecosystems to be under “effective restoration” by 2030.
- A million species threatened
Over a quarter of plants and animals assessed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of threatened species risk extinction.
According to the IPBES, about a million species are at risk.
Pollinators, essential to the reproduction of plants and three-quarters of crops that feed humanity, are at the forefront, dying off fast.
- Five horsemen of the apocalypse
For the UN, the biodiversity crisis has five causes, all human-induced and nicknamed the “Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”
They are habitat destruction (for agriculture or human infrastructure), over-exploitation of resources such as water, climate change, pollution and the spread of invasive species.
Climate change is likely to become the main driver of biodiversity destruction by 2050, experts say.
- Half of GDP
More than half (55%) of the world’s gross domestic product, some $58 trillion, depends “heavily or moderately” on nature and its services, according to auditing giant PwC.
Agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, the food and beverage industry and construction are the sectors most exposed to nature loss.
Pollination services, safe water, and disease control are other, nigh-incalculable, benefits derived from nature.
Indian economist Pavan Sukhdev, who led a research project entitled The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) had estimated that biodiversity loss comes at a cost of between 1.35 trillion and 3.1 trillion euros ($1.75 trillion and $4 trillion) per year.
- $2.6 billion in subsidies
A report in September by the Earth Track monitor said environmentally harmful subsidies to industries were worth at least $2.6 trillion, equivalent to 2.5 percent of global GDP.
This dwarfs the Kunming-Montreal framework’s target of mobilizing $200 billion per year by 2030 for nature protection.
Harmful industries that benefit from subsidies include fisheries, agriculture and fossil fuel producers.
Another target of the biodiversity framework is to reduce harmful subsidies and tax benefits by “at least $500 billion per year” by 2030.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
SDGs, Targets, and Indicators
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SDG 14: Life Below Water
- Target 14.1: By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution.
- Target 14.2: By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceans.
- Target 14.5: By 2020, conserve at least 10 percent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with national and international law and based on the best available scientific information.
- Target 14.a: Increase scientific knowledge, develop research capacity and transfer marine technology, taking into account the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Criteria and Guidelines on the Transfer of Marine Technology, in order to improve ocean health and to enhance the contribution of marine biodiversity to the development of developing countries, in particular small island developing States and least developed countries.
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SDG 15: Life on Land
- Target 15.1: By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements.
- Target 15.2: By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally.
- Target 15.5: Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species.
- Target 15.9: By 2020, integrate ecosystem and biodiversity values into national and local planning, development processes, poverty reduction strategies and accounts.
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SDG 13: Climate Action
- Target 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning.
- Target 13.3: Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning.
- Target 13.a: Implement the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible.
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SDG 2: Zero Hunger
- Target 2.4: By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality.
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SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Target 8.3: Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services.
- Target 8.4: Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production, with developed countries taking the lead.
Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators
| SDGs | Targets | Indicators |
|---|---|---|
| SDG 14: Life Below Water |
|
No specific indicators mentioned in the article. |
| SDG 15: Life on Land |
|
No specific indicators mentioned in the article. |
| SDG 13: Climate Action |
|
No specific indicators mentioned in the article. |
| SDG 2: Zero Hunger |
|
No specific indicators mentioned in the article. |
| SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth |
|
No specific indicators mentioned in the article. |
Source: ndtv.com
