Mr. Guterres warned that “humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction” and condemned the role of multinationals in destroying the natural environment, saying that:
“Multinationals are filling their bank accounts emptying our world of the gifts of nature”. Guterres went on to say that “With its insatiable appetite for uncontrolled and unequal economic development, humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction” and that we use nature “as a toilet and therefore commit suicide by proxy”;
today we are not in harmony with nature, instead we play a very different purpose”: the “cacophony of chaos, with instruments of destruction”, as the UN Secretary General put it.
It has also called for effective and immediate action in the past. Two years ago, he called on world leaders to declare a climate emergency. In recent months, however, his fiery complaints have targeted multinationals as well as government subsidies in the fossil fuel sector, and
more than 190 countries are taking part in the COP15 conference.
The conference begins today Wednesday, December 7 and will end on Monday, December 19. They
need to reach an agreement with a ten-year horizon on nature and prevent the mass extinction of species. Guterres warned, for the umpteenth time, that the loss of ecosystems cost humanity very dearly. The cost he said are “job loss, hunger, disease and death” as well as higher prices on water, food and energy.
Among the twenty or so objectives to be discussed, there is also the “milestone” ambition, known as 30x30: that is to declare at least 30% of the world's land and seas protected by 2030;
currently around 17% of land is included in a protective programme. The corresponding figure for the oceans does not exceed 8%.
According to this year's UN assessment more than one million species of the natural kingdom are threatened with extinction and their rate of extinction is the fastest in the last ten thousand years.
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