UN chief said ‘humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction’

humanity has become a “weapon of mass extinction” of nature, to which “we treat as a toilet‘, the UN secretary-general said on Tuesday, Antonio Guterresin a ceremony held in Montreal on the eve of the COP15 conference on biodiversity.

“With our bottomless appetite for unbridled and erratic economic growth, humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction,” he said as the curtain rose on the conference, which he sees as “the opportunity to stop this orgy of destruction“.

Guterres also criticized multinational corporations for turning ecosystems into “toys for profit” and warned that if the course is not corrected, the results will be catastrophic.

Since taking office in 2017, the former Portuguese prime minister has made climate change his forte.

His fiery denunciations at the grand opening of COP15 show that he also cares about the fate of the world’s threatened plants and animals, assuring that it is the same crisis.

Guterres spoke after the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, whose speech was interrupted for a few minutes by a dozen representatives of an indigenous people. Carrying a banner that reads “Indigenous genocide = ecocide‘, were quietly ushered out, receiving a supportive applause from the hall.

“As you can also see, Canada is a place of free expression, where individuals and communities are free to express themselves openly and forcefully. And we thank you for sharing your views,” Trudeau said in response to the situation.

The challenges of COP15 are enormous: one million species are threatened with extinction, one third of the world’s land is severely degraded and fertile soils are disappearingwhile pollution and climate change accelerate the degradation of the oceans.

Chemicals, plastics and air pollution are choking the land, water and air, while global warming from the burning of fossil fuels is wreaking havoc on the climate, through heat waves and wildfires. to droughts and floods.

More than 190 countries will unite December 7-19 in a bid to create a “Paris moment” by signing a 10-year pact for nature that will prevent a sixth mass extinction. But the outcome of the negotiations, which concern around 20 goals to safeguard ecosystems by 2030, remains uncertain.

“Today we are not in harmony with natureon the contrary, we are playing a very different tune”, a “cacophony of chaos played with instruments of destruction”, summed up the UN secretary-general.

“And ultimately we are killing ourselves by proxy,” he added, due to the repercussions on employment, hunger, disease and death.

On the other hand, economic losses due to ecosystem degradation are estimated at $3 trillion annually since 2030.

However, although the scientific evidence is little contested, there are still many points of friction between the members of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (195 States and the European Union, but without the United States, which is nonetheless an influential observer).

“For the Paris Agreement to succeed, biodiversity must also succeed. For the climate to succeed, nature must succeed, and that is why we must address them together,” Elizabeth Mrema, director of the CBD. does. .

Among the twenty goals under discussion, the flagship ambition, called 30×30, aspires to put at least 30% of the planet’s land and sea under minimal legal protection by 2030. This contrasts with the 17% and 10% , respectively, of the previous agreement of 2010.

COP15 will also address harmful subsidies to fisheries and agriculture, the fight against invasive species and the reduction of pesticides.

But again, the issue of financing these measures could be a sticking point, as developing countries They are calling for the creation of a fund like the one decided for the climate.

In Montreal, apart from the Canadian prime minister, no head of state or government is expected, while in Egypt there were more than 110.

With information from AFP

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