Notable progress, medium expectations, unprecedented, madness, more disappointment, desperation, despondency, sabotage, new normal, omnicrisis, devastating, hottest, fastest, largest, historic, highest, lowest, catastrophic.
HI,
I’m just back after several days in Montreal as an accredited journalist at the biennial United Nations global biodiversity conference, COP15. It was truly a worthwhile trip and learning experience. The Convention of Biological Diversity was adopted in Nairobi on 27th of May, 1992 and opened for ratifying signatures on 6th June, 1992 at the Río Conference and went into force the year later. Since then 196 countries have ratified it, all but the USA and the Vatican. The Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework adopted in Montreal is a legally binding document uniting almost the entire world. So just the first incredible experience was being in a venue with people from almost every country in the world. Experiencing expressions of cultures from around the world was inspiring.
There was no consensual agreement, though plenty of optimism, for the Framework until about 3AM on the last day. Last Monday was full of more hope, gratitude, optimism, inspiration, comfort, pride and a modicum of self-congratulation. The goal of the conference was to come up with a road map for dealing with the extremely serious triple environmental challenges of nature loss, climate change and pollution and to help reduce poverty. While these biodiversity COP conferences run every two years, they also run in parallel significance to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (with its annual COP27 just having taken place in Egypt last month). Many feel the two should be joined, but for now they run separately, but with all knowing they are equally important. The crowd attending in Montreal seemed to be about half of what I experienced at COP26 in Glasgow last year.
Having it all almost come to an end concurrent with the final game of the World Cup provided extra energy, as watchers of the game saw what it means to not give up, first when France tied the game, and then again when Argentina came back to win. Feeling the unity of the final agreement was special, and I even witnessed one CEO of a large international NGO break down crying when reporting the achievement.
The framework document is big, comprised of four goals and 23 targets, and then a number of additional documents dealing with financing, digital issues and monitoring. It all comes at time in history when we have reached a point when there must not be any further nature loss to our finite Earth.
While there was much praise of the document there were also noted weaknesses, including no language to start implementing quickly, nor targets for governments to reduce overconsumption and eliminate harmful incentives and put in place good ones. As matters stand, governments are spending at least $800 billion per year on subsidies (for fossil fuel, agriculture, etc.) that are potentially harmful to nature. Worse, environmental policy has been siloed off from development policies and strategies, with its implementation often confined to a single ministry, despite the whole of system risks posed by nature loss.
Framework goals include the triple environmental challenge: halt and reversing nature loss, climate change and pollution and help to reduce poverty.
Key commitments include:
- The 'north star' or 'southern cross' moment to halt and begin to reverse nature loss by 2030; also referred to by many as equivalent to the “1.5c moment of the Paris Agreement”;
- 30% of all the world’s Ocean and land to be protected by 2030; doubling what's already been achieved on land and tripling on Ocean (and a 11% increase for Canada);
- Bring back the nature lost and halt the extinction of species by 2030;
- Another 30: a commitment to $30bn of annual financial flows by 2030 for conservation, restoration and sustainable resource us; this within a $200b direct investment in biological diversity, a doubling of the previous commitment;
- Must responsibly manage the other 70%; including four major sectors: fishing, agriculture, forestry and industry. But no measures or targets for countries, though hopefully by 2024 at COP16 in Türkiye (the new official name for Turkey); and
- The giving of an official role to Indigenous communities globally. There was much discussion of this and great feelings of accomplishment by coming to this agreement.
Personally, I felt that what was accomplished in Montreal was about the best one could have hoped for. for such a meeting And I feel strongly that the outcomes were highly influenced by civil society, represented by about 60 organizations, including Indigenous ones. What happens now though, going forward, will be what really matters. How will each government implement what they have signed onto? What will be the role of the USA, extremely important? How will all citizens of the world contribute to fulfillment of the Framework, and will its fulfillment actually be enough?
Read on for more about COP 15 and other biodiversity and climate crises issues in our second last Planetary Health Weekly of 2022 (#51):
- CLIMATE & BIODIVERSITY CRISES UPDATES:
- World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Press Statement for Release to Accredited Journalists at COP15 in Montreal (19th
December) “Global Deal to Reverse Nature Loss by 2030 Agreed, but Immediate Action and Funds Needed to Deliver”,
- Concern about climate change shrinks globally as threat grows, survey shows,
- New study reveals billions of dollars in political spending by US trade associations, most of it on oil and gas PR,
- Climate change is driving millions to the precipice of a ‘raging food catastrophe’,
- Decarbonization program would eliminate most emissions in southwest Pennsylvania by 2050,
- Canada steps up with new funding to protect biodiversity in developing countries,
- Slash and sell: how financial giant Brookfield and its big bank backers profited from deforestation and the abuse of Indigenous peoples’ rights in Brazil; and the involvement of Mark Carney in Brazilian deforestation,
- Nature groups give high marks for new Canadian government commitment to a high ambition action plan to halt and reverse nature loss,
- Press Release: Indigenous Peoples and local communities celebrate COP15 deal on nature, and welcome the opportunity of working together with states to implement the framework,
- CORONAVIRUS UPDATES:
- New Covid model predicts over 1 million deaths in China through 2023,
- Covid spreading faster than ever in China – 800 million could be infected this winter,
- End of Covid zero threatens to overwhelm China with infections,
- India Ramps Up Covid Measures Amid China Surge, THEN
- Canadian National Farmers Union and La Via Campesina in movement…food sovereignty now!
- The U.S. Energy Department hails a breakthrough in fusion energy achieving a net energy gain with Livermore’s vast laser array,
- How low can you go? Air pollution affects mortality at very low levels,
- New food technologies could release 80% of the world’s farmland back to nature (by end of Century),
- How scientists are cleaning up rivers using grasses and oysters,
- These innovative housing projects increase affordability on a major scale,
- Chocolate companies must pay a living income price for cocoa, says 2022 Cocoa Barometer,
- European Union agrees new law to kick deforestation out of supply chains,
- Over half the world’s energy transition minerals are on Indigenous lands,
- Quote by Unilever CEO on COP15,
- New event added: February 3-9, 2023: Fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress (Vancouver, Canada)
- Press Release (today): The final text of the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in all languages,
- Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) fact sheet,
- Jeremy Farrar leaves top job at Wellcome Trust to become chief scientist at WHO,
- Cold weather affects EV range differently for each model: here are some examples,
- New book “Responsible Leadership Essential to the Achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals” edited by Mike Saks (and with chapters by PHW blogger Edward Milner and PHW editor David Zakus),
- Unveiling the research landscape of sustainable development goals and their inclusion in higher education institutions and research centres: major trends in 2000-2017, and lastly
- ENDSHOTS of Scenes from COP15 in Montreal.
Always lot of reading. Enjoy, HAPPY HOLIDAYS and MERRY CHRISTMAS. Best, david
David Zakus, Editor and Publisher
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PLACE QUEBEC PAVILLION, COP15 BIODIVERSITY CONFERENCE |
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IN COMPLETE SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE SEEKING PEACE AND VICTORY AND IN DISBELIEF AT WHAT RUSSIA CONTINUES TO DO |
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AND WITH THE BRAVE PROTESTERS IN IRAN (AND QATAR) |
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CLIMATE & BIODIVERSITY CRISES UPDATES |
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Main Hall of COP15 in Montreal, December 16. Credit: David Zakus
Global deal to reverse nature loss by 2030 agreed, but immediate action and funds needed to deliver.
Two years later than planned, due to delays caused by the COVID pandemic, WWF welcomes the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Agreement, committing the world to halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 – a global goal hailed as the equivalent to climate’s 1.5C.
Adopted by 196 countries under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, WWF welcomes the agreement’s target to conserve at least 30% of land, freshwater and ocean globally, while respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, and recognizing the contributions of indigenous and traditional territories towards the target’s tally.
However, WWF warns that the agreement’s goal of reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 could be undermined if weak language in critical areas such as the protection of intact ecosystems and tackling unsustainable production and consumption is not addressed at the national level.
“Agreeing a shared global goal that will guide collective and immediate action to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 is an exceptional feat for those that have been negotiating the Global Biodiversity Framework, and a win for people and planet. It sends a clear signal and must be the launch pad for action from governments, business and society to transition towards a nature-positive world, in support of climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals,” explains Marco Lambertini, Director General, WWF International.
“The agreement represents a major milestone for the conservation of our natural world, and biodiversity has never been so high on the political and business agenda, but it can be undermined by slow implementation and failure to mobilize the promised resources. It also lacks a mandatory ratcheting mechanism that will hold governments accountable to increase action if targets are not met. We must now see immediate implementation of this agreement, no excuses, no delays - nature and all of us who rely on it for our livelihoods, economies and wellbeing have waited long enough, it’s time for nature to thrive again. Governments have chosen the right side of history in Montreal, but history will judge all of us if we don’t deliver on the promise made today,” adds Lambertini.
One of the most contentious issues in the negotiations was the finance package to support conservation efforts globally, and particularly in developing countries.
WWF therefore commends the commitment from governments to eliminate subsidies harmful to nature, and the wider commitment to substantially and progressively increase the level of financial resources from all sources by 2030, mobilizing at least 200 billion USD per year. This represents roughly a doubling from a 2020 baseline. A major achievement is also the commitment to 20 billion USD in international finance flows by 2025 and 30 billion by 2030.
“The Kunming-Montreal Agreement adopted today gives nature a fighting chance at recovery in a world currently divided by geopolitics and inequality. WWF is particularly encouraged to see the language on species has improved substantially in the final agreement. A commitment to halt the extinction of species by 2030 is the minimum level of ambition required in the face of past failures and an accelerating extinction crisis,” says Lin Li, Senior Director of Global Policy and Advocacy at WWF International.
“The agreement’s mission to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 has the right level of ambition, but if we add up the goals and targets they alone aren’t enough to achieve this. For example, it lacks a numerical target to reduce the unsustainable footprint of production and consumption. This is disappointing and will require governments to take action at the national level. Nevertheless, we’re hopeful. Two weeks’ ago, we had a mountain of differences to resolve. Today, we leave with an agreement that starts, at least, to heal our relationship to nature,” adds Li.
It will now be essential that countries deliver on the Kunming-Montreal Agreement. This includes translating it into ambitious national plans and policies commensurate with the scale of the nature crisis. Countries must update national biodiversity strategies and action plans to align them with the global goal of reversing biodiversity loss by 2030.
Read more at Google Docs
SEE ALSO
At the Guardian: Concern About Climate Change Shrinks Globally As Threat Grows, Survey Shows
At Desmog: New Study Reveals Billions Of Dollars In Political Spending By US Trade Associations, Most Of It On PR
At Inside Climate News: Climate Change Is Driving Millions To The Precipice Of A ‘Raging Food Catastrophe’
At Inside Climate News: Decarbonization Program Would Eliminate Most Emissions In Southwest Pennsylvania By 2050, A New Study Finds
At Canada: Canada Steps Up With New Funding To Protect Biodiversity In Developing Countries
At Global Witness: Slash And Sell: How Financial Giant Brookfield And Its Big Bank Backers Profited From Deforestation And The Abuse Of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights In Brazil; And The Involvement Of Mark Carney In Brazilian Deforestation
At Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society: Nature Groups Give High Marks For New Canadian Government Commitment To A High Ambition Action Plan To Halt And Reverse Nature Loss
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Source: Twitter, December 16, 2022
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The pandemic continues all over the world and is now complicated by epidemic flu and RSV. Hospitals in Canada and elsewhere are still crowded with cases, presenting a hit to the medical system. China is being particularly affected as it lessens controls. Information about Covid-19's prevalence and outcomes is increasingly hard to find, and many erroneously feel it's over. It is far from over. Covid is still a life threatening disease associated with many complications; it's infecting, harming and killing many. New variants are continually on the rise. Many health authorities call for widespread public health measures, but it remains confusing and little adhered to. Collective action, data reporting and leadership have mostly disappeared.
Over the last week, cases are up to about 570,000/day (though this is only registered cases); deaths up about 50% to about 2000/day (and Canada is in 8th place globally, about 35/day); and vaccinations are at about 2.3 million/day. That's positive but could and should be better.
Vaccination, despite ongoing concerns about waning effectiveness and slander against it, along with other proven public health measures, remain the best ways to keep yourself and others safe from serious consequences. Get all the shots/boosters you can, and practise other public health measures (like masking) especially indoors with crowds.
See below for a few global stats and current hotspots.
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"It is the plague in seemingly all sincerity." Bob Woodward |
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Credit: Reuters
China's abrupt lifting of stringent COVID-19 restrictions could result in an explosion of cases and over a million deaths through 2023, according to new projections from the U.S.-based Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.
According to the group's projections, cases in China would peak around April 1, when deaths would reach 322,000. About a third of China's population will have been infected by then, IHME Director Christopher Murray said.
China's national health authority has not reported any official COVID deaths since the lifting of COVID restrictions. The last official deaths were reported on Dec. 3. Total pandemic fatalities stand at 5,235.
China lifted some of the world's toughest COVID restrictions in December after unprecedented public protests and is now experiencing a spike in infections, with fears COVID could sweep across its 1.4 billion population during next month's Lunar New Year holiday. Read more at Reuters
SEE ALSO:
At NPR: COVID Spreading Faster Than Ever In China. 800 Million Could Be Infected This Winter
At Bloomberg: End Of Covid Zero Threatens To Overwhelm China With Infections
At CNN: India Ramps Up Covid Measures Amid China Surge
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Focus on Central/Latin American Food Security with Carlos Jimenez |
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Canadian National Farmers Union And La Via Campesina In Movement … Food Sovereignty Now! |
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Credit: La Via Campesina
La Via Campesina (LVC) is a global movement that brings together organizations representing small- and medium-scale farmers, peasants, agricultural workers, rural women, and indigenous communities. It is pluralistic, democratic, multi-cultural, and non-partisan.
Via Campesina and its members focus on issues such as food sovereignty and trade; agrarian reform (re-distribution of access to, and control over, resources such as land, seeds, water, credit); appropriate technology, sustainable agriculture and agroecology; strengthening women’s participation in social, economic, political, and cultural matters; peasants’ and farmers’ rights; biodiversity; migrant farm workers; and the promotion of economic relations of equality and social justice.
The origin of LVC goes back to April 1992, when several peasant leaders from around the world met in Managua, Nicaragua, at the Congress of the National Union of Farmers and Ranchers (UNAG). Since then, LVC Conferences have been held every four years: in Mons, Belgium (1993), Tlaxcala, Mexico (1996), Bangalore, India (2000), Sao Paolo, Brazil (2004), Maputo, Mozambique (2008) and Jakarta, Indonesia (2013), and the next one in Managua, Nicaragua (2023).
Here is the continental assembly declaration recently hosted between Nov 29 to Dec 1, in preparation to the November 2023 global assembly. More than ever, food security is on our tables and the need to redesign the way we feed ourselves, in favour of healthy communities and a Healthy planet,
the need to redesign the way we feed ourselves, in favour of healthy communities and a healthy planet. Read more at La Via Campesina
SEE ALSO: A 20-minute introductory video to La Via Campensina’s work.
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Credit: ChipSomodevilla/Getty Images
By training 192 lasers onto a capsule the size of a peppercorn, U.S. government scientists last week were able to ignite fusion with a net energy gain—a long-sought milestone in the quest for a carbon-free energy future.
But emphasis was on the word “future,” as the team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California on Tuesday announced the breakthrough in replicating the energy that powers the sun. The successful experiment, which built on generations of prior research, was a pivotal step, they said. But commercialization remained decades away. “Not six decades, I don’t think, not five decades, which is what we used to say,” said physicist Kim Budil, director of the lab.
“I think it’s moving into the foreground and with concerted effort and investment, a few decades of research on the underlying technologies could put us in a position to build a power plant.” Read more at Inside Climate News
See also at CNN: US Officials Announce Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough
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Credit: iStock
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released new guidelines for outdoor fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) recommending an annual average concentration of 5 μg/m3. Yet, our understanding of the concentration-response relationship between outdoor PM2.5 and mortality in this range of near-background concentrations remains incomplete. To address this uncertainty, we conducted a population-based cohort study of 7.1 million adults in one of the world’s lowest exposure environments. Our findings reveal a supralinear concentration-response relationship between outdoor PM2.5 and mortality at very low (<5 μg/m3) concentrations. Our updated global concentration-response function incorporating this new information suggests an additional 1.5 million deaths globally attributable to outdoor PM2.5 annually compared to previous estimates. The global health benefits of meeting the new WHO guideline for outdoor PM2.5 are greater than previously assumed and indicate a need for continued reductions in outdoor air pollution around the world. Read more at Science
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Brazil’s enormous soy farms mostly produce food for animals, not humans. Credit: lourencolf / shutterstock
Here’s the basic problem for conservation at a global level: food production, biodiversity and carbon storage in ecosystems are competing for the same land. As humans demand more food, so more forests and other natural ecosystems are cleared, and farms intensify and become less hospitable to many wild animals and plants. Therefore global conservation, currently focused on the COP15 summit in Montreal, will fail unless it addresses the underlying issue of food production.
Fortunately, a whole raft of new technologies is being developed that make a system-wide revolution in food production feasible. According to recent research, this transformation could meet increased global food demands by a growing human population on less than 20% of the world’s existing farmland. Or in other words, these technologies could release at least 80% of existing farmland from agriculture in about a century.
Around four-fifths of the land used for human food production is allocated to meat and dairy, including both range lands and crops specifically grown to feed livestock. Add up the whole of India, South Africa, France and Spain and you have the amount of land devoted to crops that are then fed to livestock.
Read more at the Conversation
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Credit: DON EMMERT/GETTY IMAGES
On a recent summer morning near Camden, New Jersey, two divers from the US Environmental Protection Agency hovered over a patch of sediment 10 feet below the surface of the Delaware River. With less than two feet of visibility in the churning estuary, they were transplanting a species crucial to the ecosystem: Vallisneria americana, or wild celery grass. One diver held a GoPro camera and a flashlight, capturing a shaky clip of the thin, ribbon-like blades bending with the current.
Watching the divers’ bubbles surface from the EPA’s boat was Anthony Lara, experiential programs supervisor at the Center for Aquatic Sciences at Adventure Aquarium in Camden, who had nurtured these plants for months in tanks, from winter buds to mature grasses some 24 inches long.
“It’s a little nerve-racking,” he said of releasing the grasses into the wild, where they could get nudged out by a competing plant or eaten by a duck. “But that’s life.”
This was the first planting of a new restoration project led by Upstream Alliance, a nonprofit focused on public access, clean water, and coastal resilience in the Delaware, Hudson, and Chesapeake watersheds. In collaboration with the Center for Aquatic Sciences, and with support from the EPA’s Mid-Atlantic team and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the alliance is working to repopulate areas of the estuary with wild celery grass, a plant vital to freshwater ecosystems. It’s among the new, natural restoration projects focused on bolstering plants and wildlife to improve water quality in the Delaware River, which provides drinking water for some 15 million people. Read more at Wired
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HOUSING & DEVELOPMENT BOARD FLATS CREDIT: JOHNATHAN HUANG FOR GOOD GOOD GOOD
The United Nations reports that 1.6 billion people live in inadequate housing conditions, while at last count, more than 100 million people have no housing at all. It’s a big number that helpers are working to shrink through a variety of international affordable housing efforts. The Institute of Global Homelessness (IGH) is one of the first international organizations to focus its efforts on homelessness as a global phenomenon, working especially to help those living on the street or in homeless shelters. IGH believes that an innovative mix of program interventions, well-coordinated local systems, and effective policies can be scaled, connected, and accelerated internationally to reduce and end homelessness on the world stage. “Our vision is a world where everyone has a home that offers security, safety, autonomy, and opportunity,” the IGH website reads.
Singapore is known as one of the world’s best when it comes to social housing. Over 80% of the population currently lives in publicly governed and developed housing, meaning the government owns most of the land and manages inflation and property management with smart policies.
These social housing units are full of mixed-income communities and prioritize “kampong” (social cohesion). Apartment blocks use “void decks,” or vacant spaces on ground levels, and common corridors, to integrate and connect diverse tenants.
Contractors are also financially incentivized by the government to build sound structures and maintain immaculate conditions for residents. Additionally, Singapore prioritizes elderly citizens through a Senior Priority Scheme that houses seniors in central and familiar environments. Read more at Good Good Good
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Credit: Article
Sustainable chocolate won’t become a reality until companies start paying a living income price for cocoa, according to the 2022 Cocoa Barometer.
The biennial report, developed by the VOICE Network, which Freedom United is part of, shows that cocoa production continues to cause major social and environmental harm, and that current efforts to tackle core issues are failing.
Authors Antonie C. Fountain and Friedel Huetz-Adams also explore the role racism and colonial-era dynamics play in the industry.
Problems in cocoa persist; some are getting worse
The report finds that endemic issues continue to affect people in cocoa-growing regions, including: child labor; gender inequality; malnutrition; lack of access to education; insufficient health care facilities and sanitation; and a variety of labor rights violations for smallholders, workers, and tenants. Environmental issues such as deforestation and climate change are also a growing concern.
Some major social and environmental issues have been exacerbated in the last two years, with the numbers of children exposed to the worst forms of child labor rising and deforestation rates picking up again too. Read more at Freedom United
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EU Agrees New Law To Kick Deforestation Out Of Supply Chains |
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EU negotiators struck a deal on a new law to cut deforestation out of the EU market on Tuesday (6 December) [European Parliament] Credit: Article
European Union legislators reached an agreement in the early hours of Tuesday (6 December) to pass a new law guaranteeing that products sold in the EU are not linked to the destruction or degradation of forests.
Between 1990 and 2020, an area larger than the EU was lost to deforestation, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. EU consumption is a big driver of this, causing around 10% of the losses, according to the FAO.
“The EU is a large consumer and trader of commodities that play a substantial part in deforestation – like beef, cocoa, soy and timber,” said Marian Jurečka the environment minister from the Czech Republic, which negotiated on behalf of the 27 EU countries. “Protecting the environment around the world, including forests and rainforests, is a common goal for all countries and the EU is ready to take its responsibility,” he added.
The new law will require all companies to issue a due diligence statement in order to sell products like coffee, cocoa and wood on the EU market. Those linked to deforestation will be banned from import and export into the EU.
Read more at Euractiv
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SPOTLIGHT ON INDIGENOUS WELLNESS |
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Over Half The World's Energy Transition Minerals Are On Indigenous Lands |
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An open-air tin mine in the Brazilian Amazon. Credit: Mario Tama (Getty Images)
As the gears kick in for the world to shift to clean energy, it’s becoming increasingly clear that we’re going to need more of the minerals—like lithium, cobalt, and nickel—that help power our cars and form the backbone of our solar panels. And the mining industry is quickly catching on to how profitable this transition could be for them: lithium prices alone have climbed an incredible 123% this year. But mining those minerals could put some of the world’s most vulnerable people at risk—the same people who have the biggest role to play in helping protect our most important natural resources.
A new study finds that more than half of the world’s resource base for crucial energy transition materials is located on or near land where Indigenous people live. The analysis, published in Nature Sustainability, is a key example of how resource extraction could interfere with Indigenous and peasant populations and exacerbate the challenges already faced by these people, whose work on their lands is a vital tool to helping to combat climate change. Read more at Gizmodo
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Credit: Mike Pont/ WireImage
Alan Jope, CEO - Unilever
"As COP15 concludes, the message to the private sector is clear: businesses around the world and from all sectors will need to take large-scale action now to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030. The Global Biodiversity Framework is set to provide the political certainty that all large businesses and financial institutions will be required to assess and disclose risks and impacts on nature. The result will be stronger accountability and better-informed decisions by investors, governments, consumers and businesses themselves.”
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FYI#1 SPOTLIGHT ON MEDIA: PRESS RELEASE |
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Final Text of Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework Available In All Languages |
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Very well chaired conference by COP15 President Huang Runqiu from China. Credit: David Zakus
For immediate release: 22 December 2022
Final text of Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework available in all languages
Montreal, Canada – The final text of the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, agreed at the 15th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity is now available in all United Nations languages at:
https://www.cbd.int/conferences/2021-2022/cop-15/documents as document: CBD/COP/15/L25
The “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF), includes four goals and 23 targets to be achieved by 2030. The text listed below is taken from the final version of the framework.
NOTE: The text below is reproduced from CBD/COP/15/L25, and replaces the previous version of the goals and targets presented in media communications from the Secretariat. It corrects a typographical error in the first line of Target 3, where the word “of” was missing.
“The framework has four long-term goals for 2050 related to the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.
GOAL A
The integrity, connectivity and resilience of all ecosystems are maintained, enhanced, or restored, substantially increasing the area of natural ecosystems by 2050;
Human induced extinction of known threatened species is halted, and, by 2050, extinction rate and risk of all species are reduced tenfold and the abundance of native wild species is increased to healthy and resilient levels;
The genetic diversity within populations of wild and domesticated species, is maintained, safeguarding their adaptive potential.
GOAL B
Biodiversity is sustainably used and managed and nature’s contributions to people, including ecosystem functions and services, are valued, maintained and enhanced, with those currently in decline being restored, supporting the achievement of sustainable development for the benefit of present and future generations by 2050.
GOAL C
The monetary and non-monetary benefits from the utilization of genetic resources, and digital sequence information on genetic resources, and of traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources, as applicable, are shared fairly and equitably, including, as appropriate with indigenous peoples and local communities, and substantially increased by 2050, while ensuring traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources is appropriately protected, thereby contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, in accordance with internationally agreed access and benefit-sharing instruments.
GOAL D
Adequate means of implementation, including financial resources, capacity-building, technical and scientific cooperation, and access to and transfer of technology to fully implement the Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework are secured and equitably accessible to all Parties, especially developing countries, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, as well as countries with economies in transition, progressively closing the biodiversity finance gap of 700 billion dollars per year, and aligning financial flows with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.
The framework has 23 action-oriented global targets for urgent action over the decade to 2030. The actions set out in each target need to be initiated immediately and completed by 2030. Together, the results will enable achievement towards the outcome-oriented goals for 2050. Actions to reach these targets should be implemented consistently and in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Protocols and other relevant international obligations, taking into account national circumstances, priorities and socioeconomic conditions.
1. Reducing threats to biodiversity (8 targets)
2. Meeting people’s needs through sustainable use and benefit-sharing (5 targets)
3. Tools and solutions for implementation and mainstreaming (10 targets)
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Credit: Cynthia Goldsmith/Azaibi Tamin
Key facts
- Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory disease caused by Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS‐CoV) that was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
- Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause diseases ranging from the common cold to Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19).
- Typical MERS symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath. Pneumonia is common, but MERS patients may not always develop this condition. Gastrointestinal symptoms, including diarrhoea, have also been reported among MERS patients.
- Approximately 35% of MERS cases reported to WHO have died.
- MERS-CoV is a zoonotic virus, meaning it is transmitted between animals and people. MERS-CoV has been identified and linked to human infections in dromedary camels in several Member States in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
- Human-to-human transmission is possible and has occurred predominantly among close contacts and in health care settings. Outside the health care setting, there has been limited human-to-human transmission.
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FYI #3 |
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Jeremy Farrar Leaves Top Job At Wellcome Trust To Become Chief Scientist At WHO |
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Credit: RUBEN SPRICH/REUTERS
Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, one of the largest nongovernmental science funders, will step down early next year to become the chief scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO). He will replace Soumya Swaminathan, the first person to hold the post. Swaminathan, a pediatrician, announced last month that she would be leaving to focus on public health in India.
During Farrar’s decade at the helm of Wellcome, the organization’s focus has broadened from basic biomedical science to global health concerns, including mental health, the health effects of climate change, and infectious diseases. During the devastating Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014–15, Wellcome funded a series of groundbreaking vaccine and treatment trials. At the time, Farrar criticized WHO—and the rest of the world—for not acting fast enough to stem the outbreak.
Trained as a neurologist before focusing on infectious diseases for most of his career, Farrar will now lead the agency’s science division. “Jeremy will accelerate our efforts to ensure WHO, its Member States and our partners benefit from cutting-edge, life-saving science and innovations,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. Swaminathan, who took the job 9 months before COVID-19 emerged, also spent considerable time as one of the public faces of WHO’s pandemic response.
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FYI #4 |
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Cold Weather Affects EV Range Differently For Each Model: Here Are Some Examples |
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Credit: Recurrent
All electric cars experience some range loss in cold weather, but many factors can affect how much, according to a new report from battery analysis firm Recurrent.
Range loss is an inevitable result of cold temperatures for two reasons, Recurrent noted. Cold temperatures slow down the chemical reactions in battery cells, and because they don't have heat-producing engines, EVs must use additional battery power to warm their cabins. Beyond that, though, there can be major differences between models.
A crucial element is the availability of a heat pump, which can warm the interior without drawing as much power from the battery pack. Recurrent's data showed that the heat-pump-equipped Audi E-Tron and Jaguar I-Pace generally retained most of their EPA-rated range in winter.
Some EVs also have active thermal management systems that can keep a battery pack warm during cold weather, but these can also drain power. The Chevrolet Bolt EV owner's manual recommends keeping the car plugged in when it's very cold or hot to prevent this, Recurrent noted. The company makes the same recommendation to Tesla drivers, because these cars have particularly active thermal management systems.
To preserve as much range as possible in winter, Recurrent also recommends pre-conditioning the climate control and battery pack (if your car has that capability) and using a heated steering wheel or seats instead of the climate control to reduce energy demand.
It's also worth considering other aspects beyond range, Recurrent noted. EVs won't charge as quickly in cold weather, and it may be a good idea to turn down the level of regenerative braking for better control on slippery roads, the company noted.
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FYI #5: DECEMBER READING - NEW BOOK |
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“Responsible Leadership Essential To The Achievement Of The UN Sustainable Development Goals” Edited by Mike Saks |
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Credit: Book Cover
Including a chapter by PHW Editor, David Zakus, on “Responsible Leadership, the Climate Crisis and Preserving Planetary Health” and another by PHW Blogger, Edward Milner, on “Biodiversity and Responsible Leadership”
With a range of well-respected voices from across the business, political, third sector and research spectrum, this important book provides an accessible insight into responsible leadership. It represents the most comprehensive and informed work on responsible leadership linked to the UN SDGs produced to date. Based on a partnership between the Institute for Responsible Leadership (IRL) and the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), twenty original and accessible chapters discuss progress in a variety of areas relevant to the goals, including climate change and biodiversity, global health, cybercrime, human trafficking, corporate social responsibility, gender and education.
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FYI#6: SPOTLIGHT ON EDUCATION |
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Unveiling The Research Landscape Of Sustainable Development Goals And Their Inclusion In Higher Education Institutions And Research Centers: Major Trends In 2000–2017 |
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Credit: Article
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) have become the international framework for sustainability policy. Its legacy is linked with the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), established in 2000. In this paper a scientometric analysis was conducted to:
(1) Present a new methodological approach to identify the research output related to both SDGs and MDGs (M&SDGs) from 2000 to 2017, with the aim of mapping the global research related to M&SDGs;
(2) Describe the thematic specialization based on keyword co-occurrence analysis and citation bursts; and
(3) Classify the scientific output into individual SDGs (based on an ad-hoc glossary) and assess SDGs interconnections.
A total of 25,299 publications were analyzed, of which 21,653 (85.59%) were authored by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) or academic research centres (RCs).
The findings reveal the increasing participation of these organizations in this research (660 institutions in 2000–2005 to 1,744 institutions involved in 2012–2017). Some institutions present both a high production and specialization on M&SDG topics (e.g., London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and World Health Organization); and others with a very high specialization although lower production levels (e.g., Stockholm Environment Institute).
Regarding the specific topics of research, health (especially in developing countries), women, and socio-economic issues are the most salient. Moreover, it has been observed an important interlinkage in the research outputs of some SDGs (e.g., SDG11 “Sustainable Cities and Communities” and SDG3 “Good Health and Well-Being”).
This study provides first evidence of such interconnections, and the results of this study could be useful for policymakers in order to promote a more evidenced-based setting for their research agendas on SDGs.
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SCENES FROM COP15 BIODIVERSITY CONFERENCE |
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All participants did a compulsory Covid-19 test daily before entering through the almost airport like security (above)
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Kutluhan Adiyaman, Turkey
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Above: This Chinese company operating 24 power transmission projects of more than 16,000 km in 13 states in Brazil showed its transmission innovation of having the wires above the rainforest canopy, thereby not dividing and destroying forests. |
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Above: Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, and Canadian Minister of Environment, Stephen Guilbeault, announcing a $255m infusion mainly into the Global Environment Facility to help developing countries fight climate change, protect nature and support resilient communities. |
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He said on Dec. 15: "We are also ready to engage on maximizing the potential of the Global Environment Facility, also known as GEF, as the financial mechanism for this Convention. GEF brings experience and adaptability to bear. Let’s consider how we can leverage the history of this important financial mechanism for greater biodiversity action. This is why Canada has contributed its share of the historic Eighth Replenishment of the GEF. Canada’s contribution makes us the GEF’s 7th largest donor. We will also respond to the call from developing countries for help in creating sustainable finance solutions through the United Nations Development Programme’s BIOFIN Program. And last week we announced $350 million to advance biodiversity action in developing countries, in addition to the $1 billion already committed for projects supporting nature and climate together." |
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Above: Canadian Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Joyce Murray, announcing $250m to protect marine environments, conservation and restoration. Canada in legislatively committed to protecting 25% of land and seas by 2025, 30% by 2030. But now it is at only 19%. Also coming into force this month many single use plastics stopped manufacture and import, including bags, cutlery and straws; saving 1.3b tons of plastic over the next decade. |
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Above: At opening prayer of signing ceremony of Letter of Intent to protect Great Bear Lake in northern Northwest Territories with Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Stephen Guilbeault, and Shane Thompson, Minister of Environment, NWT. Below: Officials online from NWT. |
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Above and below: Canadian NGOs presenting their work on conservation. Peatland occupies 3% of Earth's surface yet store more carbon than all forests combined. |
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Above: Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); Huang Runqiu, COP15 President; Stephen Guilbeault, Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change give an update on the proceedings. |
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Montreal during the conference. |
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Big snow on St. Denis Avenue |
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Photo Credits: David Zakus |
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THANKS FOR READING THE FREE
PLANETARY HEALTH WEEKLY
Current News on Ecological Wellness and Global Health
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