At COP28 this week, there was a strong emphasis on integrating nature and climate protection efforts as a vital strategy to achieve global climate objectives.
This integration is seen as a necessary response to the increasing threat of rising temperatures in the natural world.
During the final week of the U.N. climate talks in Dubai, Colombia, and Germany, through an open letter, urged for the U.N. climate summit’s outcome to explicitly support actions against land degradation, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem restoration, among other nature protection activities.
The letter also highlighted the need for enhanced coordination of financing for both nature and climate initiatives.
This sentiment was echoed by other nature-protection organizations, with Grethel Aguilar, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Director General, stating the ineffectiveness of treating the two efforts as separate.
Colombia’s environment minister, Susana Muhamad, pointed out the direct link between nature and climate in her country, where deforestation is undermining Colombia’s emission targets and leading to increased flooding and landslides.
She emphasized the severe climate impacts in areas where nature is most depleted, particularly in light of the year’s record high temperatures.
The need for closer collaboration between climate and nature agendas was further underlined at last year’s U.N. COP15 biodiversity summit in Montreal, where countries agreed to protect at least 30% of land and seas by 2030. Nature’s role as a carbon sink and as a buffer against climate impacts, such as floods and heatwaves, was acknowledged.
In Dubai, on “Nature Day”, the presidents of both the COP28 climate summit and the COP15 nature summit convened to foster cooperation between their respective agendas. COP28 discussions included a “Global Stocktake” to assess global warming limits and future strategies.
However, concerns were raised by Shirley Matheson of WWF International about the lack of references to “nature-based solutions” in the stocktake’s draft text.
Canada’s environment minister, Steven Guilbeault, highlighted the growing momentum for integrating these agendas, especially since the agreement in Montreal. Guilbeault mentioned Canada’s initiatives in diverting funds from traditional infrastructure to nature-based solutions.
A pivotal discussion at COP28 is the proposed language to “phase out” or “phase down” fossil fuels beyond coal. The outcome of this debate is seen as crucial to the effectiveness of nature protection efforts.
Aguilar of IUCN stressed the necessity of phasing out fossil fuels, while Guilbeault expressed confidence in the reduction of unabated fossil fuels.
Colombia, heavily reliant on fossil fuel exports, announced at COP28 its commitment to halt all fossil fuel expansion, recognizing the urgent need for economic transition.
Muhamad from Colombia also referred to the 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming limit as a critical threshold, beyond which irreversible ecological tipping points may occur.
