Diving for Climate and Oceans!
Our team joined Our Fish, Oceana Europe, and Seas at Risk for an early swim in the Mediterranean, in hopes to raise awareness about oversfishing and the consequences of marine biodiversity degradation on land and sea alike. Joined by Virginijus Sinkevičius, EU Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, the “Dive for Climate” saw people from over Europe and beyond issue a call for strong commitment and action on those activities contributing to the loss of species in ocean ecosystems.
“Ocean, climate and biodiversity meet in Marseille. Cities, local and subnational are key to the success of the EU Green Deal implementation.” Virginijus Sinkevicius, EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries
Maya Gabeira, surf champion, called on the EU leaders to protect our oceans.
Youth building momentum at IUCN World Conservation Congress
Today was the opening of the #NatureforAll Youth Oasis, in the World Conservation Congress exhibition hall. The Oasis will be the centre of youth presence throughout Congress, and is to work as a place for young people to talk to each other, organize interactive activities and show all participants and the public that youth is ready for to take transformative steps to reset our relationship with nature.
In parallel, the youth delegation expanded its presence across Congress events, and showed that young leaders are not just a constituency, but that they are experts in many topics and can contribute to multiple discussions. Among others Robyn Seetal took the stage at the Opening Plenary on Systemic Change for the Economy and Finance.
“We need the increase the passion and ambition. Businesses can incorporate natural capital into their accounts , integrate nature into their reporting and governments can work on loss and damages related to nature” Robyn Seetal, Global Shapers
In the exhibition hall, the Post-2020 Partnership Pavilion started with a compelling call from Andrea Morales (GYBN El Salvador) to include the fight against inequalities in considerations related to sustainability and nature resilience.
“The IPBES global assessment highlights the relationship of the climate and biodiversity crisis with inequality.” Andrea Morales, GYBN
P2 Partnership first sessions on Transformative change
Day 1 explored whether or not the GBF draft is sufficiently ambitious to drive transformative change towards an equitable, nature-positive, carbon-neutral future for all.
“We know how much we need to invest every year and we know that the return is high in economic and human terms.” Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, GEF
“The GBF needs to drive action outside the conservation bubble. So far only 18% of the covid-19 recovery funding were green. We need more to move to a nature positive world.” Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNDP
“We are at the lowest point of the planet resilience and capacity to buffer stress. It is nature we are undermining with the massive pace of extinction and degradation. We must redefine sustainable development as equity within a healthy planet” Johan Rockström, Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Action Research
“We have to reform our food systems that is absolutely essential and the right way to do it is through regenerative agriculture.“Jennifer Morris, The Nature Conservancy
On this day there were two on-site sessions. Session 1 invited speakers to share their vision and their opinions on ambition gaps in the GBF, whilst Session 2 identified suggestions for concretely redressing these gaps, as well as framed high-level political messages to be transmitted to UNGA-76, CBD COP 15, and UNFCCC COP-26.
“We need to increase the level of ambition as we are running out of time. It is critical to have a robust post 2020 framework but the framework is just one of the aspects.” Andrea Meza, Costa Rica Minister of Environment
“It is the first IUCN congress where the business is so engaged. The First CEO summit, which was the first, with 20 CEOs did not just show awareness but also readiness.” Diane Holdorf, Managing Director, WBCSD
“We need a global agreement to give a signal to the business and financial markets to move.” Marco Lambertini, WWF Director General
“The right to a healthy and sustainable environment should really be incorporated in the GBF. It can be used to protect both human rights and ecosystems’ health. Putting human rights at the heart of any environmental framework is an obligation not an option.” David Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur for Environment and Human Rights
