Amid global wars, UN chief calls for ‘peace among ourselves’ to halt Earth’s ‘existential crisis’ at COP16

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attends a press conference at the 16th United Nations Biodiversity Summit (COP16), in Yumbo, Colombia October 30, 2024. Humanity faces an ‘existential crisis’ caused by its rapacious destruction of life-sustaining nature, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned delegates at a biodiversity summit in Colombia. — Reuters pic

CALI (Colombia), Oct 31 — UN chief Antonio Guterres called yesterday for “peace among ourselves” in order to save the planet, as devastating wars rage in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon and Sudan.

“We need peace with nature and we need peace among ourselves,” Guterres told journalists in Cali, Colombia, where he attended a UN summit that is seeking ways to “halt and reverse” humankind’s destruction of Earth’s bountiful resources.

“We need to make peace among ourselves because wars... have some of the most devastating impacts on biodiversity, on climate and on pollution,” the secretary general said.

He reiterated calls for a “just peace” in Ukraine and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with “massive” humanitarian aid to the people there and the release of all hostages held by Hamas since its attack on Israel more than a year ago.

Guterres also underlined the need for a peace in Lebanon “that respects Lebanese sovereignty and Lebanese territorial integrity and paves the way for a political solution,” after Israel expanded its military offensive into that country.

He called for “peace in Sudan, where an enormous tragedy exists.”

The secretary general joined five presidents and dozens of ministers in Cali for a two-day “high-level segment” seeking to add impetus to the biggest-ever UN biodiversity summit, which started on October 21 and runs until tomorrow.

Environmentalists commute on a local bus to the blue zone of the COP16 summit in Cali, Colombia, on October 30, 2024. — Reuters pic

‘Existential crisis’

The 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) to the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) must make progress on the creation of monitoring and funding mechanisms to achieve 23 goals agreed in Canada two years ago to put the brakes on nature destruction.

A report issued by nature watchdogs Monday said only 17.6 per cent of land and inland waters, and 8.4 per cent of the ocean and coastal areas, are protected and conserved.

And an update of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List found more than 46,000 plant and animal species out of some 166,000 assessed are threatened with extinction.

Negotiators in Cali, however, remain stuck on modalities of funding, and on how best to share the profits of digitally sequenced plant and animal genetic data—used in medicines and cosmetics—with the communities they come from.

The UN chief reiterated his warning that humanity faced an “existential crisis,” saying COP16 delegates must make haste to address “the permanent neglect of biodiversity.”

Another goal of the 2002 Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework is to ramp up biodiversity financing to US$200 billion per year by 2030.

“Obviously finance is essential, but finance is not enough,” said Guterres.

“What we need is a political priority at government level, a political priority at the multilateral institutions level, and a clear commitment of the private sector.”

He added: “Without defeating the biodiversity crisis, we will not defeat the climate crisis, we will not defeat the pollution crisis and we will condemn our world to a situation of extreme poverty in the natural environment.

“This is totally unacceptable.” — AFP