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United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that the world is falling behind its biodiversity targets, saying the “war on nature has not yet ended”.
According to AFP, Guterres issued the warning on Thursday while launching a global report before the UN biodiversity talks in Yerevan, Armenia, beginning Monday.
Nearly 200 countries adopted the landmark “Paris Agreement for Nature” four years ago. The pact sets 23 targets to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030. These include reducing pollution, protecting threatened species and conserving 30 percent of the world’s land and oceans.
However, the report found that many of these targets remain off track. Guterres said governments had made some progress but were still far from doing enough.
“It’s not all bad news… There is progress, but not enough. We are far from what is necessary,” he told reporters in Yerevan.
“The report shows that many of the critical elements of progress… are still missing in action,” he added.
Guterres said the findings showed that the “war on nature has not yet ended”.
The report found that current government policies were not enough to meet the key target of protecting 30 percent of the Earth’s land and waters by 2030. Other goals were falling further behind. Guterres also urged countries to honour their financial pledges to developing nations. He warned that governments had made little progress in cutting public spending that harms nature.
Countries have pledged to reduce harmful subsidies by $500 billion a year by 2030. These subsidies support industries such as fossil fuels, mining and agriculture. However, progress towards the target remains limited.
According to UN figures, about $30 still goes into activities that damage nature for every dollar invested in protecting or restoring it.
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“Nature won’t thrive on good intentions,” Guterres said.
He also warned about the strong influence of industries on government decisions, pointing to industrial fishing, fossil fuels and logging operations. A lack of funding remains a major barrier to meeting the biodiversity targets.
Although governments are not expected to announce major new financial pledges at COP17, they will face pressure to strengthen their efforts.
