- World leaders have pledged to clamp down on pollution, embrace sustainable economic systems and eliminate the dumping of plastic waste in oceans
- By the middle of the century as part of “meaningful action” to halt the destruction of nature on Earth.
- To restore the balance with nature, governments and the European Union have made a 10-point pledge to counteract the damage to systems that underpin human health and wellbeing.
- The commitments include a renewed effort to reduce deforestation, halt unsustainable fishing practices, eliminate environmentally harmful subsidies and begin the transition to sustainable food production systems and a circular economy over the next decade.
- The leaders describe the pledge as a “turning point” by which future generations will judge their willingness to act on environmental destruction.
- All signatories to the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature, launched virtually in New York recently, have committed to putting wildlife and the climate at the heart of post-pandemic economic recovery plans, promising to address the climate crisis, deforestation, ecosystem degradation and pollution.
- The announcement comes ahead of a major UN biodiversity summit on 30th September, which will be hosted virtually from New York, and part way through negotiations on a Paris-style international agreement on nature.
- The leaders also commit to ending environmental crime and cracking down on organised crime groups involved in the illicit trafficking of wildlife and timber.
- Earlier this month, the UN announced that the world failed to meet a single target to slow the loss of the natural world for the second consecutive decade,
- Including goals to protect coral reefs, preserve natural habitats and reduce plastic and chemical waste to levels that do not damage ecosystems.