The Vice-President and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, today participated in the closing plenary session of the forum “Mobilising nature and society to address the climate emergency: the way forward”, held during the World Conservation Congress, organised by the IUCN, and which is taking place in Marseille from 3 September to Saturday 11.
The Vice-President and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, today participated in the closing plenary session of the forum “Mobilising nature and society to address the climate emergency: the way forward”, held during the World Conservation Congress, organised by the IUCN, and which is taking place in Marseille from 3 September to Saturday 11.
In her speech, Ribera reaffirmed the results of COP 25, organised in Madrid under the presidency of Chile in December 2019, and highlighted the importance of nature-based solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change. In this sense, he explained that “those ecosystem-based approaches are measures that allow us to address biodiversity loss and climate change in an integrated way and also take advantage of the possible co-benefits”.
The role of the scientific community is essential, Ribera stressed. “One of the key aspects of COP 25 was the use of science as a common language and as a beacon for negotiators. More than ever, the scientific community was present, informed and took part in the negotiations.”
The vice-president emphasised the link between climate change and biodiversity loss. “Protecting biodiversity requires addressing the climate emergency and vice versa,” he stressed.
Another aspect pointed out by Ribera was the need to undertake a change in the economic and social model that allows “restoring the balance with nature and at the same time improving the quality of life of human beings”. In this sense, he pointed out that “the degradation of natural systems resulting from our economic model is a major stressor for health and well-being”.
A NEW DEVELOPMENT MODEL
Human health and its close relationship with the good state of ecosystems has been another of the axes of his intervention. “The COVID-19 pandemic will have lasting impacts on the way we conceive and manage human interaction with the ecosystem,” said Ribera.
A paradigm shift that will affect sectors such as energy, food, commerce or the reconfiguration of urban environments and that constitutes “an unprecedented opportunity to promote global change and take a leap towards more sustainable and equitable societies”, said the vice-president.
Ribera stressed the importance of integrating biodiversity into sectoral policies, identifying the resources and budgets needed to achieve the targets and increasing ambition in national emission reduction contributions (NDCs).
“The objective is to transform social behaviour to protect the planet, biodiversity and human well-being, from a health, social, economic and financial point of view”, he stressed. Along these lines, the next Biodiversity and Climate Change summits, COP 15 and COP 26 respectively, “will work to increase knowledge and the way to make visible the need to bet on this way of approaching the problem of climate and biodiversity deterioration,” said Ribera.
CLIMATE CHANGE AT THE IUCN CONGRESS
Along with the vice-president, other panelists have participated, such as Ivete Maibaze, Minister of Land and Environment of Mozambique; Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary of the Ministry of the Environment in Germany; Rukka Sombolinggi, Secretary General of the Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of the Indonesian Archipelago (AMAN), and Mr Rohitesh Dhawan; CEO of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM). A session in which a balance was made of the discussions and events related to climate change held during the forum on climate change and biodiversity of the IUCN Congress, a forum that began on September 4 and ends today.
The IUCN World Conservation Congress, held every four years, brings together thousands of leaders and decision-makers from governments, civil society, indigenous peoples, businesses and academia with the aim of contributing to environmental conservation and promoting nature’s solutions to global environmental challenges. This edition, initially scheduled for June 2020, was postponed to September 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Congress has two main axes: the Forum, a platform for public debate where the most important and urgent conservation and sustainability challenges at the global level are discussed, through different events, and the Assembly of Members, IUCN’s main decision-making body, which includes governments and NGOs that make joint decisions on conservation and sustainability.
Traditionally, the World Conservation Congress is held in one of the IUCN Member States and on this occasion the French town of Marseille is the setting for the celebration, which takes place in a hybrid format, as it is also held online.
This edition of the Congress is intended as a place for meeting and debate that will promote action on nature-based recovery, climate change and post-2020 biodiversity.
