Conservation groups have commended the inclusion of biodiversity and a 2030 global deforestation goal in the UAE consensus that emerged from Cop28, along with positive wording on the role of Indigenous communities.
Some hope that the deal could help to intermesh nature and climate more closely, rather than treating the two as separate subjects.
But many have also expressed concerns that tepid language on fossil fuel emissions would fail to control the global heating responsible for eroding forest resilience to drought, fire and disease, threatening to tip carbon-rich ecosystems into becoming a source of the greenhouse gas emissions that are heating the planet.
Under the agreement struck in Dubai on Wednesday, governments are required to consider the natural world and carbon stores such as forests while developing their next round of nationally determined contributions to the Paris agreement. The new plans, which countries including the US and China said they would produce, are due before Cop30 in the Brazilian Amazon in 2025 and need to be calibrated towards limiting global heating to 1.5C.
Read also:Climate groups commence legal actions against Rosebank North Sea oil project
Despite the progress on recognising the importance of the natural world and nature-based solutions, division remains about how to fund nature conservation, with talks on carbon markets at Cop28 ending in failure.
Among other things, the UAE consensus “emphasises the importance of conserving, protecting and restoring nature and ecosystems towards achieving the Paris agreement temperature goal”.
This will include “halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030, and other terrestrial and marine ecosystems acting as sinks and reservoirs of greenhouse gases and by conserving biodiversity”, in line with this decade’s UN biodiversity targets.
The biodiversity agreement, which was reached last December in Montreal, has 23 commitments, which include protecting 30% of the planet for nature by the end of the decade, reforming $500bn (£410bn) of environmentally damaging subsidies, and restoring 30% of the planet’s degraded ecosystems. Governments will need to consider those commitments in their new climate plans.
The UAE consensus also notes the need for more financial resources for nature and implementation based on “the best available science as well as Indigenous peoples’ knowledge and local knowledge systems”.
Jennifer Morgan, who is the former executive director of Greenpeace who is now heading the German climate delegation, lauded the “great language” on nature and forests.
Claudio Angelo of the Brazilian Climate Observatory said that it was the first time the 2030 deforestation goal had been included in a UN agreement, thereby upgrading the voluntary language of the previous Glasgow declaration on forests into “a binding-ish commitment among 200 countries”.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
