On the sidelines of the fourth edition of the One Planet Summit, which is being held this Monday in Paris, MEP Pascal Canfin, chairman of the European Parliament's environment committee, is campaigning for the Intergovernmental Scientific and Political Platform on Biodiversity and ecosystem services (IPBES) receives the Nobel Peace Prize, like the IPCC in 2007. "It would be an incentive to act", he argues.
What is the interest of this summit organized by France on Monday?
PASCAL CANFIN.
The challenge is to place the protection of biodiversity on the same level as that of the climate.
Today, everyone perceives the risks associated with global warming and the importance of the climate crisis.
But the disappearance of nature does not have the same echo.
This summit is an opportunity for France and some fifty countries to commit to preserving 30% of marine and land areas on their territory.
And it comes as China will organize an international conference dedicated to biodiversity in October.
Like the COP21 which was concluded by the Paris agreement?
Exactly.
Except that here, the goal is to stop destroying nature.
In 2007, the intergovernmental group of experts on climate change (IPCC) won the Nobel Peace Prize for its work.
However, there is a similar group of experts dedicated to damage to biodiversity.
It's called IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services).
It's a bit like the IPCC of nature.
But the protectors of nature deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.
This is why, with the German Minister for Ecology, we would like this prize to be granted to them.
I have already filled out the form for their application to be considered and I will run this campaign.
Isn't that purely symbolic?
This would be symbolic because the prize is awarded in October and China is hosting its global biodiversity conference the same month.
But it would also be an incentive to act.
When the IPCC obtained the Nobel Peace Prize, it contributed to a better global awareness of the chaotic effects of global warming on the planet.
However, a world without nature would make us just as vulnerable, especially in the face of the pandemics we are currently experiencing.
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Biodiversity: how the European bison was saved from extinction
Why ?
Until now, the wild world had very little contact with the human species but, due to deforestation, our propensity to spread out, we are massively destroying the natural habitats occupied by wild animals which are therefore entering more and more often in contact with humans.
And that makes us more vulnerable to epidemics transmitted by the animal world.
Even in France, we see nature decimated before our eyes.
About 70% of the birds in the fields are gone, and what about the bees?
If the conservationists win the Nobel Prize, it will be a strong message to all those who are fighting to preserve it and to all those, like Bolsonaro in Brazil, who, on the contrary, defend destructive models.
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How can we act to protect nature?
When you buy chocolate or coffee produced in deforested tropical areas, when you consume palm oil products or meat fed with soybean meal from fields erected in place of the Amazon rainforest, you participate indirectly in destroying nature.
This is why, in June, we are going to propose a law at European level which will impose a traceability certificate for imported products.
Access to the EU market will only be reserved for products guaranteed to be zero deforestation.