The European Union’s environment chief, Virginijus Sinkevicius has said that 2022 must be the year for an ambitious agreement on the oceans, action that protects the world’s biodiversity, and for negotiations to tackle the global crisis of plastic pollution.
Sinkevicius, who is the EU commissioner for environment, oceans and fisheries, said that much time that should have been used to save nature and the oceans had been lost over the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He however noted that the 27-member bloc is determined to move ahead quickly to steer a global green transition.
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“This year must be the year of the oceans,” he said. “This year must be the year of biodiversity. … (and) it is essential to get plastics under control and the only way to do it is global,”. ”
The EU commissioner noted that a top priority for the EU is to reach “a Paris moment for biodiversity” — like that in Paris in 2015 when world leaders reached the landmark climate agreement which set a target of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.
He explained that the world has already warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) since that time and that without acting on this front, we won’t succeed in solving the climate crisis.
“The finest technologies to solve the climate crisis are not sophisticated machines, they are trees, oceans and healthy ecosystems,” he said.
He maintained that there must be “a genuinely transformative moment for biodiversity at the 15th conference of parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Kunming, China from April 25-May 9.
“This requires a strong political engagement from all at the highest level,”he said.
Story was adapted from abcnews.
