World Economic Forum

December 2, 2021
The conservation movement, since its origins in the 19th century, has primarily relied on public funding and philanthropic contributions to achieve its ends. The Global Canopy Programme estimates that the total annual expenditure on conservation to date has been $50 billion, of which more than 80% was from governmental and philanthropic sources. Ecosystem Marketplace similarly estimates the annual flows of private investment dollars into conservation in the low billions of dollars, with the bulk of these funds going to sustainable food and fibre rather than habitat conservation.

In November 2021 at COP26, a collective $12 billion for forest-related climate finance between 2021-2025 was announced with the support of 11 nations. Yet, all these expenditures lag significantly behind the annual expenditures needed to preserve the planet’s biodiversity, estimated by Credit Suisse, McKinsey & Co and the World Wildlife Fund to be between $300 and $400 billion. Without private investment dollars, this shortfall is likely to persist indefinitely.

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Scientific American - OpEd

November 30, 2021
November 30 is the Remembrance Day for Lost Species, an informal holiday established in 2011 by a U.K.-based coalition of artists, scientists and activists. The point of the day is political: to draw public attention to human-caused extinctions, in hopes of preventing more. But for many participants the day is also personal, an attempt to grasp the enormity of extinction.

Every year brings more species to memorialize, and this year is no exception. Among this year’s newcomers are 23 species of plants and animals that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared extinct at the end of September. Had you heard of the turgid-blossom pearly mussel, the flat pigtoe mussel or the stirrupshell mussel? What about the Scioto madtom or the San Marcos gambusia, two freshwater fish? Me neither. These species, like so many others, went extinct before most of us even knew their names. 

We need a Remembrance Day for Lost Species. But if we want to protect life on a meaningful scale, we also need to remember the species we still have.

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World Economic Forum

November 25, 2021
Throughout this past summer, wildfires ravaged forests from California to Siberia, devastating wildlife, and turning entire communities to dust. But as affected countries deal with the visible damage, the whole world will have to reckon with an unseen consequence for decades to come: a massive release of greenhouse gas.

It’s easy to forget that the ground beneath us contains far more than just dirt, even in some of Earth’s most rugged environments. All kinds of ecosystems — lush rainforest, muddy peatland, shady mangroves — contain eons of stored carbon, captured by photosynthesis. Worldwide, there are about 730 gigatons of manageable carbon locked away in nature; and if disturbed by fire, agriculture, or development, these stores can vanish, sending long-stored emissions right back into the air. As humanity works to prevent runaway climate change, this kind of unplanned expense could quietly bust our carbon budget.

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Mirage

November 23, 2021
At the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow in November, direct and unprecedented engagement between indigenous peoples, local communities and governments helped unlock sustainable and resilient ways to achieve the Paris Agreement commitments and reverse biodiversity decline. For the first time in the history of the UNFCCC, twenty-eight indigenous peoples were nominated from each of the seven UN indigenous socio-cultural regions, to engage directly as knowledge holders and share experiences as indigenous experts with governments.

Indigenous peoples and local communities have knowledge and values oriented towards nature and amassed through generations. Indigenous peoples steward over 80% of the planet’s remaining biodiversity.

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The CSR Journal

November 20, 2021
We face unprecedented challenges in our world today. The ongoing once-in-a-generation pandemic, to increasingly extreme weather events causing devastation at local and regional scales. The climate crisis causing disasters around the world is due to the imbalance of the carbon cycle, and increase in greenhouse gases from human activity.

The sixth IPCC (United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report cements the science on the causes. In addition, human activity also has terraformed Earth’s landscapes destroying the natural ecosystems causing biodiversity decline. This further harms the ability of our regenerative Earth systems to maintain stability.

The imbalances in the biosphere affect nature and way of life. The current economic pathway is directly in conflict with nature. It is the source of our life, livelihoods, and economy. Strengthening nature inclusive thinking in business decisions creates a resilient future.

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Pew

November 18, 2021
The role of nature to mitigate the impacts of a warming climate—and help wildlife, ecosystems, and people adapt and build resilience to those changes—was a core topic of attention at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow, Scotland. The need for increased ambition, in part by protecting and restoring critical carbon sinks around the world, marked a significant call to action in the decade ahead. 

Successfully implementing the agreement—referred to as the Glasgow Climate Pact—will depend on governments moving fast and decisively to deliver on it, and doing so would put many nations on a path toward the net-zero-emissions goals they committed to by 2050 (some have pledged to hit this target by 2030). And although the outcome of the Glasgow summit promises an improvement on the anticipated emissions gap reported prior to the conference, the commitments secured at the conference will not be enough to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius—which science says is needed to stave off major impacts of climate change.

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Campaign for Nature

November 17, 2021
The prominence of nature and biodiversity in the Glasgow Climate Pact and throughout the climate talks marks the first time nature was meaningfully incorporated into global climate negotiations. 

The final Glasgow climate agreement notes the importance of: “ensuring the integrity of all ecosystems, including in forests, the ocean and the cryosphere, and the protection of biodiversity, recognized by some cultures as Mother Earth.” 

It goes on to emphasize: “the importance of protecting, conserving and restoring nature and ecosystems, including forests and other terrestrial and marine ecosystems, to achieve the Paris Agreement temperature goal by acting as sinks and reservoirs of greenhouse gases and protecting biodiversity, while ensuring social and environmental safeguards.” 

Indigenous Peoples were recognized as important partners in designing and implementing climate solutions during negotiations.  And, according to the document, countries should respect, promote and consider their rights when climate action is taken. However, sufficient safeguards for Indigenous rights and recognition of Indigenous leadership  in “Nature-based solutions” were inadequate according to many Indigenous leaders who attended the COP.

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Project Syndicate

November 17, 2021
Costa Rica is celebrating 200 years of independence this year. It is an opportunity to honor our ancestors and think about our descendants, and we invite the world to celebrate with us. Those who cannot visit in person should do so by protecting the Earth’s land and oceans, the source of all life. 

Specifically, governments, businesses, communities, and individuals should commit to conserving at least 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030. Scientists have determined that this “30x30” goal is the minimum level of conservation needed to prevent a catastrophic loss of nature and to stem climate change. 

But 30x30 will not happen by itself; it will require time, attention, and money. Economists estimate that achieving this goal – by conserving the world’s most important intact wild areas and restoring crucial degraded habitats – would represent less than one-third of the amount that governments spend on subsidies to activities that destroy nature. It is encouraging that nine major philanthropic organizations recently pledged $5 billion to the 30x30 effort, the largest donation to nature in history.

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Landscape News

November 16, 2021
The 2021 U.N. Climate Change Summit (COP26) has ended, but many questions remain on the agreements reached by the 197 parties as well as the pledges made by governments.

The Glasgow Climate Pact aims to phase down unabated coal power and end inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, while more than 140 countries have now committed to ending deforestation by 2030.

The two-week event also ended the legal wrangling over Article 6 of the Paris Agreement after six years of discussions, thereby providing a framework for countries to exchange carbon credits through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as a mechanism to reduce emissions.

Here, climate lawyer and policy advisor Stephen Leonard shares his views on these and other outcomes.

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BBC

November 15, 2021
COP26 was the moment countries revisited climate pledges made made under the 2015 Paris Agreement. 

Six years ago, countries were asked to make changes to keep global warming "well below" 2C - and to try to aim for 1.5C.

COP stands for "Conference of the Parties", and the one in Glasgow was the 26th annual summit. Ahead of it, 200 countries were asked for their plans to cut emissions by 2030. 

The goal is to keep cutting emissions until they reach net zero by mid-century.

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The Guardian Nigeria News

November 14, 2021
Covid-19 and climate change are two unprecedented challenges for all of us. While we now rightly focus on containing the virus, addressing the immediate health crisis and limiting the economic damages, we also need to start tracking our way out of the crisis towards recovery. We need to ensure that the recovery is based on the vast opportunities that green transition offers. 

Africa is home to a remarkable animal, plant, and marine biodiversity. The continent is rich in tropical forests, wetlands, deserts, savannah and montane grasslands, providing critical ecosystem services and serving as buffers to climate change. For example, mangrove swamps protect coastal societies in Eastern Africa from cyclones and tsunamis, while serving as homes for various species and a source of income for the local people. 

However, the region is experiencing a dramatic loss of biodiversity. Agricultural and other human expansion on land and in the sea, overexploitation of wildlife and spread of invasive alien species are some of the drivers for biodiversity loss, and so is climate change and pollution. Scientists have warned that by 2100, climate change alone could cause the loss of over half of mammal and bird species and trigger a 10-30 per cent decline in lake productivity.

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The Statesman

November 14, 2021
It’s becoming increasingly clear that we not only need to adapt to protect vulnerable communities and natural habitats against climate change but we also need to look to nature as a regenerative solution, not just something that we need to protect, but something that will protect us, Google has stressed.

During the past two weeks at the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), world leaders committed to averting the worst consequences of climate change.

“When we observe the Earth’s surface over the past few decades in Google Earth’s Timelapse, the immensity of the change to our natural environment is arresting,” said Nithya Sowrirajan, Director, Global Solutions, Google Earth and Earth Engine.“At Google, we’re keenly invested in preventing the worst effects of climate change, and helping our customers use Google Cloud technology to build a more sustainable future,” added Jen Bennett, Director, Office of CTO, Google Cloud.

It was 11 years ago at COP16 that the tech giant unveiled Google Earth Engine, an earth observation platform that combines a multi-petabyte catalog of satellite imagery and geospatial datasets with powerful analysis capabilities.

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UNDP

November 11, 2021
Protected areas (PAs) and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) are a cornerstone of biodiversity conservation that provide co-benefits for achievement of the SDGs, in support of a nature-positive future. This report presents the global status of PAs and OECMs and opportunities for action, focusing on coverage and quality elements of effective management and equitable governance. Recognition is given to Indigenous Peoples' territories and the need to secure tenure rights, as well as embed PAs and OECMs into national policies and frameworks.

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ENDS Report

November 8, 2021
In a conversation with fellow economist Lord Stern at COP26, Sir Partha Dasgupta said that a ‘bold and imaginative’ response is needed to provide a financial incentive to protect globally valuable ecosystems.

“Rainforests are a global public good… and yet they are in national jurisdictions,” said Dasgupta, the author of a review of the economics of biodiversity commissioned by the Treasury. But the incentive that they have to protect such habitats is less than their value for the biosphere as a whole, posing an economic dilemma. There is a similar problem with the deep ocean, too: “nobody has to pay for it” when extracting resources such as fish or minerals, the professor said.

So a new body to protect global public goods, akin to the International Monetary Fund or World Bank but operating under the United Nations, should be established, he argued. They could charge for access, providing funding for the maintenance of ecosystem services.

A good deal of negotiation would be needed to set it up, of course – “but I think we should not fear that”.

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New Straits Times

November 7, 2021
Since 1994 the United Nations (UN) has convened almost every country on Earth for an annual summit known as the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

This year's two-week 26th meeting, COP26, is described as "the most significant climate event since the 2015 Paris Agreement" which committed nations to limiting global warming to well below 2°C (preferably 1.5°C), and "the world's best and last chance to get runaway climate change under control."

United States President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Indonesian President Joko Widodo were among the 200 world leaders attending the first two days of the conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

Malaysia is ably represented by the savvy Secretary-General of the Water and Environment Ministry Datuk Seri Dr Zaini Ujang.

The conspicuous absence of more senior representation, though, seemed to many a sign that Malaysians were nonchalant about the event. That is, until a big headline appeared saying that more than 100 world leaders had promised to end and reverse deforestation by 2030.

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