Eight million threatened

What do Glasgow, Sharm El Sheikh, Kunming, and Montreal have in common? Shipbuilding cities? Exotic holiday destinations? Which is the odd one out, and why do they matter to the future of the planet?

You may remember the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow last year. The follow-up conference will be taking place shortly in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh where there will be an assessment of whether countries are doing enough to tackle climate change (almost certainly not, according to the independent think tank Chatham House).

But I want to draw attention to a less-well known but no less critical strand of international diplomacy, the Convention on Biological Diversity, which also originated at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and whose latest meeting was due to take place in Kunming, China in 2020. The Covid pandemic put paid to that and after repeated postponements the meeting is now taking place in Montreal this December. Kunming is therefore the odd one out as it’s the UN conference that didn’t happen, but in compensation China still gets to chair the meeting.

Ecological crisis

All this matters because the planet isn’t just facing a climate crisis, but an ecological crisis too. One million of the world’s estimated 8 million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction, with severe consequences for people: for example, up to $577 billion in annual global crop production is at risk from pollinator loss. The world has seen an average 68% drop in mammal, bird, fish, reptile and amphibian populations since 1970. The UK isn’t immune from these trends: 41% of UK species are in decline since 1970, with no sign of the rate of loss slowing.

Back in 2010, at an earlier meeting of the parties to the Convention, the world’s nations – 196 of them – agreed to halt the loss of biodiversity globally by 2020. Ten years later, a global assessment found that we have failed to take enough action to turn the tide of biodiversity loss, and things continue to get worse. Even in the UK, the government’s own assessment showed the UK missed nearly all its commitments made for nature.

Now, in Montreal, the world has an opportunity to make more ambitious and meaningful goals to restore nature, not just to halt the loss, but to bring healing to creation.

What’s the point?

But what use are global deals? Are they just meaningless promises from politicians which are bound to be broken?

We can look to the success of a treaty agreed by all UN member states in 1987, the Montreal Protocol, which is on course to fix the atmosphere’s ozone layer by banning ozone-depleting substances. It’s been remarkably successful and shows that international diplomacy can make a real difference to the health of the planet.

International law and the peer pressure of other nations can spur action by countries to tackle global problems, even if it often feels too little, too late. Much depends on the willingness of rich countries to put up the cash and lead by example. All the more challenging when there are so many problems facing the world, from the war in Ukraine to the cost of living.

Meanwhile we have a new UK Government that has bought into the idea that we have to weaken nature protections in order to promote economic growth. This is a false dichotomy; a healthy natural environment is essential for a sustainable economy – or to put it in more Biblical terms, a healthy creation is essential for human flourishing, and honours the Creator.

We need to pray for Christian organisations engaging in these meetings and for our leaders, that they might govern wisely so that all of creation would flourish.