World biodiversity summit

Time to move beyond pledges

TOMORROW promises to be a day of, well, promises. World leaders will come together virtually in New York at the United Nations Biodiversity Summit to discuss what each will do to save nature. Never mind that nature needed saving a long time ago. To show their seriousness, leaders from 64 countries have signed the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature ahead of tomorrow’s summit. Interestingly, Malaysia is not one of them. But there may be time yet for Malaysia to do so as, at press time, the pledge remains open for endorsement. The pledge suggests that it’s an international agreement of sorts that aims to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. All that loss in 10 years must be a big ask. We have seen such language and global ambition — “We the nations of the world” — before. If loftiness and high ambition need an example, the UN Charter is a good one. Beginning with “We the peoples of the United Nations”, the charter pledges four things. One, to save us from the scourge of war. Powerful nations not only start wars but also invent reasons to go to war. Who is to stop them? Two, to reaffirm the faith in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of nations large and small. This notwithstanding, people of certain creed and colour are forced to surrender their dignity and worth by powerful nations and their allies. Small nations too get bullied into obedience. Three, to establish conditions under which justice can be maintained. The UN is 75 years old and yet justice remains an elusive goal. Finally, to promote social progress. This, too, is a broken pledge. Today, there are 7.7 billion people in the world, of whom 717 million are living in extreme poverty. A world that allows close to 10 per cent of humanity to live on less than US$1.90 a day cannot be said to promote social progress.

Would the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature be any different? To be fair, we are still in talk time, not deed time. The leaders have 10 years ahead of them. Perhaps we should grant them those years. True, they have been errant before and they may be again. Some of the pledge’s lofty language and ambitious goals do seem to point that way. But there is a sense of urgency in the pledge, though. “We are in a state of planetary emergency” is their language. So is “business as usual” isn’t an option. But these words were spoken before, exactly a year ago in New York at the Leaders for Nature and People event organised by global conservation organisation World Wide Fund for Nature in support of the UN Emergency Declaration for Nature and People. We ask, as Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen asked then, why we have not acted sooner, especially when we know what it takes and what to do? World leaders owe an explanation to this generation and those to come. The science isn’t in dispute. Just look around. The planet is in crisis everywhere. Human activities have pushed the planet to the brink. The Earth can’t be benign any more. Nature must be restored. And it must be restored now. To put it in naturalist Sir David Attenborough’s words, what we do in the next few years will determine what happens in the next few thousand years. If we are blessed with the years, that is.

The science isn’t in dispute. Just look around. The planet is in crisis everywhere.