A few weeks before the climate COP26 and the biodiversity COP15, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) intends to put pressure to save biodiversity and stop global warming, at a time when the negotiations are slipping.

The IUCN, with 1,400 members (States, government agencies, NGOs, indigenous peoples, business associations) will close its world congress held in France with the publication of a "Marseille manifesto" and the adoption of motions in link with ongoing international negotiations.

"The science is very clear"

"Decisive and collaborative action between governments and in all sectors of society is imperative," claims a provisional version of this manifesto. “If we are to ensure the future of life on Earth, we must halt biodiversity losses by 2030 and achieve ecosystem restoration by 2050.” He stresses the importance of limiting global warming climatic “below 1.5 ° C”. The vote on motions will take place until Friday. Without being restrictive, they will set the course and the level of ambition of the organization.

NGOs plead for IUCN to be ambitious.

"We must do what is necessary, rather than what is possible" politically, defends Gavin Edwards, coordinator at WWF International.

“The science is very clear”, with a million endangered species and humans suffering from poor ecosystem health, he continues, and “the context is very different from a decade ago: consciousness loss of nature has never been so high, the solutions are there ”.

However, this emergency is struggling to rise to the level of the climate emergency at the political level.

The Covid-19 pandemic, by forcing international negotiations for COP15 to be held online, has not helped, preventing real progress.

Complex issues

IUCN, in the draft version of its manifesto, "urges governments to put in place a + nature-based stimulus package" supported by public investment, while removing environmentally harmful subsidies. "We must therefore tackle the factors that reduce life, and (...) health", continues the organization, citing "pollutants, especially those from agriculture and industry". It advocates “the sustainable reconstitution of wild species, healthy ecosystems and genetic diversity”. The fight against global warming, if it is complex, revolves around a clear objective: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming to well below 2 ° C, or even 1.5 ° C. .

The challenges linked to biodiversity, which affect the protection of wildlife, but also the fight against pollution, adaptation to climate change, food security or health, are much more difficult to measure and quantify.

A coalition led by France and Costa Rica wants to unite countries around a clear goal: to protect at least 30% of land and oceans by 2030 at the global level, an objective taken up by the Convention on Biological Biodiversity ( CBD) and in a motion under discussion at IUCN.

An achievable compromise

For Oscar Soria of the Avaaz movement, "IUCN should be very clear that the protection of half the planet is necessary". The IUCN motion also recognizes that “it has been shown that between at least 30% and up to 70% of the planet should be protected”. The objective of 30% "has created a lot of confusion" and "countries of bad faith, such as Brazil, Indonesia, are using it", reproaches Oscar Soria, also criticizing South Africa which would try to lower this figure further.

France, which hosts the IUCN congress "knows that more must be protected, but considers that 30% is an achievable compromise in 2030", he laments.

The manifesto, like the motions that will be adopted by Friday evening, could feed into the negotiations due to be concluded in the spring of 2022 at the 15th CBD meeting in China.

This COP15 will have a particular format, since it will open in October with virtual discussions.

Negotiations will take place in Geneva in January, before the conclusion of COP15 in April-May in Kunming.

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