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Biodiversity, pandemics and the circle of life

This was supposed to be a big year for biodiversity — a "super year," as the United Nations proclaimed it as recently as February. A number of landmark global meetings were planned: a World Conservation Congress in France; a United Nations Ocean Conference in Portugal; and a Nature Summit in New ...

Environmental protection can avert future calamities

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) refers to the opinion piece by Tan Sri Zakri Abdul Hamid (‘Critical learning for all countries’, NST, 15 April) and is in total agreement with his view that “as we relentlessly encroach on nature and degrade ecosystems, we endanger the health of all humanity, a warnin ...

Airlines lobby to rewrite carbon deal in light of coronavirus

Airlines are lobbying to rewrite the rules of a global agreement designed to tackle aviation emissions, with the coronavirus outbreak expected to make its targets tougher to meet.

To Meet Paris Agreement Targets, India Should Pay More Attention to Soil

The nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement typically include afforestation and reduced deforestation as additional carbon sinks. The first Biennial Transparency Reports for NDCs submitted in 2015 are due in 2022 for developed countries to 2024 for developing countries. ...

Paris Climate Agreement Architects Make a Case for “Stubborn Optimism”

When Christiana Figueres took the reins of the United Nations’ international climate negotiations in 2010, hopes were not high that the world would come together to forge an agreement to tackle global warming—especially after talks had fallen apart in Copenhagen the previous year. In fact, when ...

Learning from China to protect nature

In October this year, governments from around the world are due to adopt a new global agreement to stop the loss of nature on land and in the ocean, at the most important biodiversity conference in a decade – COP15. The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biologica ...

Coronavirus hits a critical year for nature and the climate

New global agreements on biodiversity, oceans and COP26 climate talks could be derailed by Covid-19

Global conservation communities pinning their hopes on new agreement to save nature

Humanity is driving at full speed towards the “abyss of ecosystem collapse”, from local freshwater systems to the global climate, but is blindly ignoring the “warning lights and crash barriers” continuing to ramp up business as usual, says environmental futurist Professor Nick King.

Rich countries could be asked to pay billions to protect biodiversity

Wealthy nations could be asked to make significant financial contributions to biodiverse countries such as Brazil under proposals put forward during talks on a global agreement to halt and reverse biodiversity decline.

ANALYSIS-Governments face pressure to protect nature in biodiversity 'super year'

Green groups hope 2020 will see countries commit to a 'Paris agreement for nature' which offers a chance to halt shocking declines in animal and plant life

We need system change'

A draft global plan to halt the collapse of nature will not protect vulnerable communities or stop the Earth’s sixth mass extinction, claims Friends of the Earth International. The call comes as governments meet in Rome for the first time today to work on a “Paris-style” United Nations agreement ...

Negotiations start on global 'Paris-style' deal to avert Earth's sixth mass extinction

Government ministers from across the globe will this week discuss a draft plan aimed at halting the collapse of nature by 2030, a deal likened as the Paris Agreement for biodiversity.

Ten new migratory species protected under global wildlife agreement

Asian elephants, jaguars and great Indian bustards were among 10 new species added to a global wildlife agreement on Saturday.The Thirteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP13) concluded in Gandhinagar, I ...

We have a chance to halt biodiversity loss. The stakes have never been higher

The year 2020 has been designated a “super year for nature”, when the global community will rededicate itself to halting biodiversity loss with a 10-year action agenda, scheduled for agreement at the conference of the parties to the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in Kunming in China in October.

The Paris Agreement set an unrealistic target for global warming. Now what?

It's been a rallying cry for activists and a key talking point for diplomats. For decades now, 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of global warming has been viewed as a "do not cross" line in climate policy, a temperature at which cataclysmic and potentially permanent damage to the plane ...

2020 marks a turning point for nature’s role in climate solutions

Global biodiversity talks in China this year will highlight nature-based solutions that could meet one-third of Paris Agreement climate goal by 2030.

MOROCCO: Twinning with EU to improve environmental protection

Morocco is committed to working in partnership with the European Union in the context of environmental protection. A twinning agreement has therefore been signed between the two parties and aims, among other things, to bring Moroccan regulations on environmental protection into line with those o ...

Italian wine and truffles to be at Dubai Expo 2020

An agreement has been signed to promote Italian wine and truffles ahead of the Dubai Expo 2020.Signatories were the Italian truffle academy AIT and the Italian sommeliers' association AIS, in the presence of Foreign Undersecretary Manlio Di Stefano and the head of the Cia-Agricoltori Italiani fa ...

Humans risk living in an empty world, warns UN biodiversity chief

Humanity will have given up on planet Earth if world leaders cannot reach an agreement this year to stop the mass extinction of wildlife and destruction of life-supporting ecosystems, the United Nation’s new biodiversity chief has warned.

Mobile protected areas for biodiversity on the high seas

A new agreement is being negotiated under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to provide legally binding mechanisms to protect the marine environment and to conserve and ensure the sustainable use of marine biodiversity on the high seas (international waters in area ...

Humans risk living in an empty world, warns UN biodiversity chief

Ahead of the World Economic Forum, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema urges governments to take definitive action on climate, deforestation and pollution.Humanity will have given up on planet Earth if world leaders cannot reach an agreement this year to stop the mass extinction of wildlife and destruction o ...

To save biodiversity, MEPs call for binding targets at global and EU level

MEPs want the upcoming global biodiversity conference COP 15 to agree on legally binding targets, as was the case for the Paris agreement on climate change. Parliament adopted its position in view of the 2020 UN biodiversity conference (COP 15), in Kunming (China) in October by show of hands.

Safeguarding biodiversity is not just an environmentalist issue

In less than one year, delegates from around the world will gather in Kunming, China, to complete a new global agreement for protecting and conserving the world’s natural systems. To succeed, they must bring together not just environmentalists, but also officials with the clout to effect change ...

A Transformative Deal for Nature

In less than one year, delegates from around the world will gather in Kunming, China, to complete a new global agreement for protecting and conserving the world's natural systems. To succeed, they must bring together not just environmentalists, but also officials with the clout to effect change ...

M.J. Bale is about to start a year-long science experiment

Australian menswear retailer M.J. Bale has announced a new five-year agreement with a Tasmanian-based wool farm. The 116-year-old conservationist-led farm, Kingston, will be secured as a supplier for the brand.

UN draft plan sets 2030 target to avert Earth's sixth mass extinction

Almost a third of the world’s oceans and land should be protected by the end of the decade to stop and reverse biodiversity decline that risks the survival of humanity, according to a draft Paris-style UN agreement on nature.

Climate talks fail to tackle Africa’s priorities, again

African countries were left disappointed at the 25th meeting of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 25) in Madrid this year. No agreement was reached on carbon market rules to finance climate change projects in developing countries.

Climate change: new rules agreed to determine which investments are green

Parliament negotiators reached an agreement with Council on Monday on new criteria to determine whether an economic activity is environmentally sustainable.

The Paris Agreement - without nature, a dead end path?

Coinciding with the annual Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), COP25, and to inform the development of the upcoming European Green Deal and Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, BirdLife this week released a comprehensive briefing laying out concrete ac ...

Hopes dim as COP25 delegates remain deadlocked over Paris rulebook negotiations

Even as half a million protesters demonstrate outside, UN climate summit negotiators inside Madrid’s COP25 seem blind to the urgency of the climate crisis. Instead of making effective progress, the rules they’re shaping to carry out the Paris Agreement’s Article 6 could worsen carbon emissions, ...

#Biodiversity – MEPs call for legally binding targets, as for climate change

Next year’s UN biodiversity conference, the COP15, should be the biodiversity equivalent of the Paris agreement on climate change, says the Environment Committee.

Guyana refutes findings that deforestation skyrocketed after REDD+ payments stopped

A landmark five-year, $250-million pay-for-performance agreement between wealthy, oil-rich Norway and heavily forested Guyana was supposed to keep the South American nation’s biodiverse and carbon-rich forests standing and their carbon out of the atmosphere.

Towards a global biodiversity accord

The 2015 Paris climate agreement was made possible when countries realised it was in their own interest to commit to reducing their carbon dioxide emissions. But a similar understanding of the need for stronger conservation policies has yet to take hold, putting the world’s ecosystems increasing ...

Toward a Global Biodiversity Accord

The 2015 Paris climate agreement was made possible when countries realized it was in their own interest to commit to reducing their carbon dioxide emissions. But a similar understanding of the need for stronger conservation policies has yet to take hold, putting the world's ecosystems increasing ...

Landmark deal to give Khoi and San benefit-sharing levy in Rooibos

The Rooibos industry and the Khoi-Khoi and San have signed an access and benefit-sharing (ABS) agreement which will see the Khoi-Khoi and San communities benefit from the commercialisation of the indigenous herbal tea.

The world needs a massive carbon tax in just 10 years to limit climate change, IMF says

A global agreement to make fossil fuel burning more expensive is urgent and the most efficient way of fighting climate change, an International Monetary Fund study found on Thursday.

Most of world's biggest firms 'unlikely' to meet Paris climate targets

More than four fifths of the world’s largest companies are unlikely to meet the targets set out in the Paris climate agreement by 2050, according to fresh analysis of their climate disclosures.

Antarctic marine protection treaty offers lessons for global conservation

A landmark multinational agreement protecting Antarctica's Ross Sea offers valuable lessons for similar global conservation pacts in the future, according to a new analysis coauthored by a CU Boulder researcher.

The fight to contain climate change – Implementing Paris, mobilizing action

With the follow-on elements to the Paris Agreement – the so-called Paris “rulebook” – all but finished at COP 24 in Poland last December, the concern of the international climate community is now focused principally on the challenge of rapidly increasing the ambition of country efforts to reduce ...

Asean joins negotiations on global pact to safeguard life on earth

Asean member-states (AMS) and the Asean Center for Biodiversity (ACB) joined talks last week on a global agreement to safeguard all forms of life on Earth.

UN biodiversity convention opens talks on global agreement to safeguard nature and secure our future

2 September 2019 – Following a summer of dramatic heat waves and forest fires, and close on the heels of a landmark scientific report charting an unprecedented decline in nature, the global community came together from 27-30 August in Nairobi to deliberate over an appropriate response.

Deep transformations needed to achieve Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change call for deep transformations that require complementary actions by governments, civil society, science, and business.

Government officials, experts and activists from around the world gather in Nairobi this week to open talks on a global agreement to safeguard life on Earth, in all its forms. The 27-30 August meeting marks the official start of negotiations toward a new global framework for biodiversity.

Negotiating legally-binding agreement to provide future generations with a ‘healthy, resilient and productive ocean’

On Monday, the Intergovernmental Conference on an international legally binding instrument kicked off its third of four rounds of UN meetings toward achieving a global treaty for the oceans under the UN Convention for the Law of the Sea, known as UNCLOS.

What is the role of business in tackling the climate crisis?

We can't reach the Paris Agreement climate goals without business on board. Some companies are taking the lead, but big polluters still fall way behind.

Giant step forward for conservation in Chilean Patagonia

On 10 May, Tompkins Conservation, The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Government of Chile announced an agreement to create a public-private fund to ensure the future conservation of Chilean Patagonia.

UN Environment and Saudi Arabia sign deal to strengthen environmental protection

19 May 2019 – UN Environment and the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia signed a strategic cooperation agreement today to strengthen environmental protection and safeguard natural resources in the Kingdom.

How the Paris Agreement Model Could Help Ward Off the Next Mass Extinction

Biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history. A bankrupt biosphere, however, is not yet destiny. To reverse course, nations must take a page from the Paris Agreement on climate change and negotiate a New Deal for Nature.

UN chief: Climate change 'running faster than we are'

Countries failing to live up to commitments under the 2016 Paris agreement to keep global temperature rise at bay.

France to reach out to Pacific Leaders on a global agreement on the protection of the world’s biodiversity

After the success of the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015, France now wants to champion a similar global agreement for the protection of the world’s biodiversity.And the European nation is campaigning to push through a global pact on biodiversity at the next Conference of the Parties to ...