RIYADH: Efforts to address global biodiversity challenges are underway, with the UN Development Programme assisting 69 nations in preparing national strategies, a senior official revealed.
Speaking to Arab News on the sidelines of the fourth day of COP16, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director at the Bureau for Policy and Program Support Marcos Neto explained that the organization is preparing plans in cooperation with governments.
The action falls in line with the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the UN in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and achieve peace and prosperity for all by 2030. Countries have committed to prioritizing progress for those who are furthest behind.
“We are trying by governance, by the UN secretary-general, to support governments to prepare the nationally determined contributions to the climate convention. We are also supporting 69 countries in preparing the national biodiversity plans. What we are doing is that we are actually doing those plannings with governments at the same time,” Neto said.
“We are making sure that the national biodiversity and the nationally determined climate plans are aligned to each other and mutually reinforcing each other, and we are bringing the land degradation targets into those processes,” he added.
The UN assistant secretary-general highlighted that the program is focusing on initiatives that have a significant impact, working country by country across 170 nations, ensuring everything is ready for the submission of indices at COP30 in Belem.
With regards to the three UN conferences – covering climate, biodiversity, and land – taking place this year, Neto said: “Now, the other important point is unifying the three finances.”
He added: “According to our colleagues, this is going to cost $1 billion a day to restore the land that needs to be restored. Who’s going to pay for that? So, this conversation of finance among the three, it’s also an important one.”
Speaking on the role of the program, the UN assistant secretary-general shed light on how it intends to support Saudi Arabia with its Riyadh action plan.
“We have already talked to the Kingdom about our role in supporting the operationalization going forward for the next two years,” Neto said.
When discussing targets, he added: “How are we going to be able to feed 8 billion people and not deforest? That, I think, is where the land restoration targets that are going to come out of here at the end become very important.”
Neto highlighted that the conference’s primary focus should be the target for land degradation neutrality, saying: “Coming out of this convention with a simple ‘We need to restore 1.5 billion hectares of land’ is great as it elevates this convention to the same level of clarity as what we are trying to accomplish as the other two conventions.”
Regarding land degradation, Neto said: “Land and water, which are parts of this convention here, are essential for biodiversity conservation. So, you can’t deal in this conservation without dealing with climate change because climate change is going to become an accelerator to the loss of biodiversity and to the degradation of land. So those things can no longer be thought of in isolation. They have to come together in that sense.”
He added: “We need to move means of production and consumption. We need to move into land tenure issues, women’s rights, poverty, food security. It’s not just an integration among the three conventions, but it’s the three conventions integrated into sustainable development at large in that sense.”
