Current:Home > MyUN Proposes Protecting 30% of Earth to Slow Extinctions and Climate Change -Quantum Capital Pro
UN Proposes Protecting 30% of Earth to Slow Extinctions and Climate Change
View
Date:2025-04-16 07:41:51
A new United Nations proposal calls for national parks, marine sanctuaries and other protected areas to cover nearly one-third or more of the planet by 2030 as part of an effort to stop a sixth mass extinction and slow global warming.
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity released the proposed targets on Monday in a first draft of what is expected to become an update to the global treaty on biodiversity later this year. It aims to halt species extinctions and also limit climate change by protecting critical wildlife habitat and conserving forests, grasslands and other carbon sinks.
Ecologists hailed the plan as a good starting point, while simultaneously urging that more needs to be done.
“We will prevent massive extinction of species and the collapse of our life support system,” said Enric Sala, a marine ecologist and National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence, of the draft. “But it’s not enough. We need half of the planet in a natural state.”
In an influential study published in April, Sala and others pushed for even more aggressive targets, calling for an additional 20 percent of the world to be set aside as “climate stabilization areas,” where trees, grasslands and other vegetation are conserved, preventing further carbon emissions.
Eric Dinerstein, the lead author of last year’s study and director of biodiversity and wildlife solutions for the health and environmental advocacy organization RESOLVE, said new climate models and biodiversity analyses conducted in the past year underscored the need to protect more than 30 percent of the planet in the near future.
“If we don’t conserve these additional areas between now and 2030 or 2035, we are never going to make a nature-based solution approach work for staying below 1.5” degrees Celsius, the most ambitious aim of the Paris climate agreement.
Conserving more than 30 percent of the planet by 2030 will not be easy. Only 15 percent of all land and 7 percent of oceans is currently protected, according to the United Nations Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre. These percentages are just shy of the UN Convention’s 2020 targets, which call for 17 percent of all land and 10 percent of marine environments to be protected by the end of 2020.
Approximately 190 countries have ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity since it was drafted in 1992. One major exception is the United States, which signed but has not ratified the agreement.
Brian O’Donnell, director of Campaign for Nature, said the 2020 targets are still within reach.
“I think we are very close, and what tends to happen, as we get close to the deadline, that tends to move nations, and often you tend to get some bold announcements,” he said.
The 2030 protected area targets, which could increase or decrease in ambition before being finalized, are anticipated to be adopted by governments at a meeting of the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity in Kunming, China, in October.
In addition to reaching spatial targets for protected areas, financing to manage and protect those areas adequately is also key, O’Donnell said.
He added, “that will be the make or break of whether this target is fully effective and works, if wealthier nations, philanthropists, and corporations put some resources behind this to help some of the developing world to achieve these targets as they become increasingly bold.”
veryGood! (83)
Related
- Jorge Ramos reveals his final day with 'Noticiero Univision': 'It's been quite a ride'
- Bridgerton Unveils First Look at Penelope and Colin’s Glow Up in “Scandalous” Season 3
- Glasgow Climate Talks Are, in Many Ways, ‘Harder Than Paris’
- See Chris Evans, Justin Bieber and More Celeb Dog Dads With Their Adorable Pups
- Pregnant Kylie Kelce Shares Hilarious Question Her Daughter Asked Jason Kelce Amid Rising Fame
- Ireland Baldwin Shares Top Mom Hacks and Nursery Tour After Welcoming Baby Girl
- Bridgerton Unveils First Look at Penelope and Colin’s Glow Up in “Scandalous” Season 3
- California’s Almond Trees Rely on Honey Bees and Wild Pollinators, but a Lack of Good Habitat is Making Their Job Harder
- Arkansas State Police probe death of woman found after officer
- Groups Urge the EPA to Do Its Duty: Regulate Factory Farm Emissions
Ranking
- Pressure on a veteran and senator shows what’s next for those who oppose Trump
- NYC nurses are on strike, but the problems they face are seen nationwide
- Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott Break Up After 17 Years of Marriage
- Groups Urge the EPA to Do Its Duty: Regulate Factory Farm Emissions
- Charges tied to China weigh on GM in Q4, but profit and revenue top expectations
- Inside Clean Energy: Coronavirus May Mean Halt to Global Solar Gains—For Now
- Here's what's at stake in Elon Musk's Tesla tweet trial
- New Climate Research From a Year-Long Arctic Expedition Raises an Ozone Alarm in the High North
Recommendation
Juan Soto to be introduced by Mets at Citi Field after striking record $765 million, 15
Disney employees must return to work in office for at least 4 days a week, CEO says
Massive landslide destroys homes, prompts evacuations in Rolling Hills Estates neighborhood of Los Angeles County
The Pence-Harris Showdown Came up Well Short of an Actual ‘Debate’ on Climate Change
Charges tied to China weigh on GM in Q4, but profit and revenue top expectations
New York City nurses end strike after reaching a tentative agreement
Tom Brady, Justin Timberlake and More Stars Celebrate Father's Day 2023
Tom Brady Shares His and Ex Gisele Bundchen's Parenting Game Plan