More than 60 countries pledged in 2020 to make nature and the environment key to their post-Covid-19 recovery plans. The promises include enacting policies to reduce pollution, to phase out the disposal of plastic waste in waterways and oceans, and to adopt sustainable economic models.
The Leaders’ Pledge for Nature was signed by 64 governments ahead of the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity, held virtually on 30 September 2020. It stated: “Science clearly shows that biodiversity loss, land and ocean degradation, pollution, resource depletion and climate change are accelerating at an unprecedented rate. This acceleration is causing irreversible harm to our life support systems and aggravating poverty and inequalities as well as hunger and malnutrition.”
Taking measures to better tackle environmental crime and wildlife trafficking are also part of the pledge, although it has been declared by the UN itself that previous international targets and promises on nature conservation and climate protection have not been met.
Despite that note of caution, the declaration has been broadly welcomed by wildlife and climate action groups as a positive sign that the world’s governments are taking seriously the need to act now to prevent irreversible damage to the environment and essential ecosystems.
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More than 60 countries pledged in 2020 to make nature and the environment key to their post-Covid-19 recovery plans. The promises include enacting policies to reduce pollution, to phase out the disposal of plastic waste in waterways and oceans, and to adopt sustainable economic models.
The Leaders’ Pledge for Nature was signed by 64 governments ahead of the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity, held virtually on 30 September 2020. It stated: “Science clearly shows that biodiversity loss, land and ocean degradation, pollution, resource depletion and climate change are accelerating at an unprecedented rate. This acceleration is causing irreversible harm to our life support systems and aggravating poverty and inequalities as well as hunger and malnutrition.”
Taking measures to better tackle environmental crime and wildlife trafficking are also part of the pledge, although it has been declared by the UN itself that previous international targets and promises on nature conservation and climate protection have not been met.
Despite that note of caution, the declaration has been broadly welcomed by wildlife and climate action groups as a positive sign that the world’s governments are taking seriously the need to act now to prevent irreversible damage to the environment and essential ecosystems.