The other COP
🌐 Another agenda gathers momentum alongside climate action.
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Analysis and global perspectives in health, development, planet.
It’s a parallel path.
If you’re inundated by COP26-related emails as much as I am—or if you get the Tuesday Briefings—you probably don’t need another analysis of what progress is or isn’t being made in Glasgow.
Today I’m going to talk about a movement that’s running alongside the climate meeting, but intersects with it in ways that have a bearing on climate action.
It’s about protecting nature.
There was a time when those words might have sounded like tree-hugging idealism to those in the higher echelons of power, state or corporate. No more:
Protecting nature is steadily getting higher on the global agenda.
Scientists, activists and many global businesses now know that destroying nature means destroying what makes our world rich in more ways than one.
The pandemic has made the case stronger. Although no longer prominent in media coverage, there was a time last year when the virus spillover narrative was dominant in discussions about how Covid-19 may have originated. (It has, as you’ve probably noticed, been taken over by the ‘lab-leak’ narrative and its political rivalries.)
But the various organisations pushing for nature protection did a good job seizing that moment. And over the months, we’ve seen the momentum build—in terms of declarations and negotiations, at least.
One forum reflecting that momentum is the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) summit. Its deliberations come in the form of yet another COP—a generic term for “Conference of the Parties”, referring to the decision-making bodies of these conventions. The New York Times called the Biodiversity Summit “The Most Important Global Meeting You’ve Probably Never Heard Of”, citing the risk of biodiversity collapse as an existential crisis that matches climate change.
After being postponed twice due to the pandemic, the biodiversity summit kicked off last month with virtual sessions—in-person negotiations are due in April in the city of Kunming, China—with high hopes of backing the "30 by 30" plan. This catchy goal stands for protecting 30% of the world's lands and oceans.
Much like the other COP happening now, the prospect of getting an agreement on ambitious measures are mixed. Support is said to be there from several countries and some business leaders, which is significant. The 30x30 target was cited in the declaration of the G20 following the latest meeting in Rome, just before its leaders jetted over to Glasgow.
Other analysts point at a lack of public backing, alongside criticisms by conservationists that the draft of the declaration is weak on specifics and commitment. Then there’s the perennial conflict between conserving nature and supporting people who make a living from the land.
There wasn’t much to report on as part-one of the summit concluded, beyond the launch of a US$232 million biodiversity protection fund for developing countries launched by China. And even that was met with criticism that it duplicates existing funding, amounts to ‘a drop in the bucket’, or misses the mark of tackling the damage done by development projects and trade. (TRF + France24 + TRF)
And there’s some discouraging history that comes with the whole effort: an earlier UN-backed 10-year plan to protect biodiversity ended in a failure to reach most of its targets. This is not a good omen.
But—to go back where we began—there’s now more awareness of how nature is intertwined with every facet of our lives, directly or indirectly. Just as importantly, there’s also more awareness that protecting nature is inseparable from acting on climate change—or at the very least, that they’re two interlinked parts of the wider sustainability agenda.
Nature protection is not where most mitigation impact will be made, and progress is harder to gauge. There’s no single measure, like carbon emissions, on which we can rely. But the benefits go beyond carbon. There’s the imperative of preventing the next pandemic, for example, reducing pollution, and the push to acknowledge that land managed by indigenous communities does better at preserving biodiversity and keeping carbon in the ground.
Other initiatives that speak to those links are adding to the momentum—here are two recent examples:
Access to a healthy environment has been declared a human right by the UN Human Rights Council for the first time, after a group of countries tabled a proposal that won majority support. (UN + Reuters)
🗃 EXPLAINER | What is the right to a healthy environment and why is it important? - Women’s Agenda
And over 250 organisations have endorsed the São Paulo Declaration that calls for "a fundamental shift" in how we live, in recognition of how human and planetary health are connected—from how we produce food and energy to rethinking how cities are designed.
But as we know, words and declarations only go so far.
Regular readers of the Briefings will know that we consistently see evidence of how the destruction of nature is embedded into how the global economy operates. For instance: research by a global think tank has found that investments made by public development banks around the world are linked to nature loss estimated at $800 billion each year. This is because the banks lend to sectors such as food and mining, which often rely on biodiversity-rich environments—such as the Amazon rainforest, where logging is on the rise. Logged areas are more likely to be deforested, which then has a knock-on effect on the regional and global climate.
Going by the press releases that land in my inbox, it’s abundantly clear that the organisations pushing for nature protection are aware of how this all links up. Their messaging game is strong!
The question is, how do we go from messaging and declarations to concrete action?
US biologist Thomas Lovejoy, who first arrived in the Brazilian Amazon in 1965 and is credited with coining the term "biological diversity", doesn't appear to put much faith in the UN summit.
"You have to look for where the levers are,” he says, “and at the moment the most promising is international private-sector initiatives around trees and storing carbon."
Briefing Highlights
TREND TO WATCH
Ten forests that are protected as part of UNESCO's world heritage sites have become net emitters of carbon over the past 20 years due to degradation from human activity and climate change. This adds to evidence from the Amazon, showing that a part of the rainforest is no longer functioning as a carbon sink. Global agreements to stop deforestation have come and gone without success. A new one has now kicked off at COP26 in Glasgow, aiming to stop and reverse deforestation by 2030. It’s signed by world leaders representing more than 100 countries and 85% of the world’s forests, including Jair Bolsonaro who is, let’s say, antonymous to forest protection. Whether this is a turning point, or a repeat of past failures, remains to be seen.
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UNDER THE RADAR
India and Brazil have recently featured in reports about privacy and access concerns surrounding the use of digital tools such as facial recognition and biometric IDs. A study of surveillance laws in six African countries points to similar problems: protection of privacy rights is there on paper, but governments ignore or find ways to circumvent them, without consequence.
Based on Briefings October 26 & November 2
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
The decline in global Covid-19 cases is showing signs of stalling - CIDRAP
Why Africa’s missing numbers show a different side to the pandemic - Bhekisisa
Cambodia: vaccine mandates raise rights concerns - Human Rights Watch
“Vax” is Oxford’s 2021 word of the year - NYT
🗃 EXPLAINER | Brazil senators urge COVID charges for Bolsonaro - WaPo
ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE
Climate change is turning the cradle of civilization into a grave - WaPo
What near-term climate impacts should worry us most? - Chatham House
Deforestation soars in Nigeria’s gorilla habitat - Mongabay
In Malaysia’s Johor, forest reserves are being replaced with gold mines and palm oil plantations - SCMP
SCIENCE & TECH
Attempt to charge Mexican scientists with ‘organised crime’ prompts international outcry - Nature
The human face of the internet in Timor-Leste - Dev Policy Blog
Afghan girls learn, code 'underground' to bypass Taliban curbs - TRF
How three refugee scientists kept their research hopes alive - Nature
HEALTH
Measles in the DRC: More than 40K cases reported year to date – Outbreak News Today
Toxic charge: How batteries are poisoning Kinshasa’s children - Al Jazeera
Climate change: Temperature rise linked to over 200,000 kidney disease hospitalisations in Brazil - International Business Times
HUMANITARIAN
Two months after the earthquake, health needs remain high in Haiti - MSF
Both sides in Ethiopia’s conflict stand accused of war crimes - Economist
Syria war: Refugees returning home risk persecution, torture and death, report warns – Middle East Eye
HUMAN RIGHTS
Benin MPs vote to legalise abortion – CGTN Africa
Tunisia: Attack on director of LGBT group - Human Rights Watch
Tinder thinks love has no borders—even in the West Bank - Wired
🎥 VISUAL | Rare access captures dances and feasts of Amazonian chief's funeral ritual - Reuters Wider Image
From the week’s global soundtrack 🌐
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