Icon: enlarge
Natural landscape in Bavaria: "poor certificate" for the UN
Photo: Martin Siepmann / Westend61 / imago images
The UN biodiversity summit was supposed to be an important event for nature conservation.
Here the course should be set for a global framework convention for the protection of plants and animals.
But the corona pandemic has messed up the plan.
The decisive meeting for a protection agreement will only take place next year.
Binding regulations for the conservation of biodiversity are not expected at the meeting on Wednesday, which will be held virtually in New York.
After all, heads of state and government from more than 60 countries have issued a joint declaration underlining their intention to do more to preserve global biological diversity.
On Monday, on the fringes of the UN general debate, they jointly adopted a so-called "promise for nature".
"By supporting this promise to nature, we commit ourselves not just to words, but to meaningful deeds and mutual accountability to address the planet's crisis," the document said.
Among other things, unregulated fishing and poaching are to be stopped and plastic waste will no longer end up in the seas by 2050.
Supporters include France, Great Britain and Germany, among others.
"Biodiversity is our life insurance: It provides clean air and water, food, building materials and clothing. It creates jobs and a livelihood," said Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) via video message.
"And as the coronavirus pandemic has shown very clearly, an intact natural environment protects us from disease and can heal."
Numerous large states such as Brazil, India, the USA and China did not take part in the action.
Brazil's head of state Jair Bolsonaro and US President Donald Trump have long been criticized and have scaled back nature conservation measures in their countries.
On Wednesday there is to be the first high-level event on the protection of biological diversity at the United Nations.
UN Secretary General António Guterres and Prince Charles will also speak.
The British heir to the throne has been committed to environmental protection for many years.
"Indictment of poverty" for the UN
Experts are also looking forward to the speech by China’s President Xi Jinping.
Only a few days ago he had promised greater efforts in the fight against the climate crisis.
Xi announced that his country wanted to achieve climate neutrality before 2060.
China is currently responsible for around a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions.
On Wednesday, however, there will probably not be a joint final document at the biodiversity summit.
Florian Titze from WWF Germany commented that it was a "poor testimony".
A recent UN report had shown that none of the goals set ten years ago for 2020 had been achieved on the subject.
Another biodiversity conference is planned for the coming year in Kunming, China.
"Kunming needs to make biodiversity a pervasive concern and a political issue," said UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir.
"Everyone needs to understand the risks of inaction."
The Convention on Biological Diversity is an international treaty that was agreed at the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Brazil.
It pursues three goals: conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of nature and the fair sharing of the benefits that arise from genetic research, according to the United Nations.
Icon: The mirror
joe / dpa