'War on nature has not yet ended', says UN chief
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that the world was falling short of its pledges to protect nature as he launched a progress report ahead of next week's global biodiversity summit.
"The report shows that many of the critical elements of progress are still missing in action," Guterres told reporters in Yerevan, Armenia, warning that the "war on nature has not yet ended".
Nearly 200 nations are meeting in Yerevan on Monday for the U.N. biodiversity talks four years after they agreed a landmark pact to halt and reverse the destruction of nature by 2030.
The "Paris Agreement for Nature" set 23 targets including reducing pollution, protecting threatened species and conserving 30 percent of the world's land and oceans.
But there has been "a gap between ambition and action" and nations must redouble efforts to get the goals back on track, said Guterres.
He said progress had been made but a lot more was needed particularly on financing conservation and redirecting public spending that harms nature.
"Nature won't thrive on good intentions," Guterres said.
"Now guided by the evidence in the report that we are presenting today, we can halt and reverse biodiversity loss and secure the natural foundations upon which all human life and prosperity depends."
Source: Agence France Presse
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