ISLAMABAD, Oct 1 (APP): Director General, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Hammad Naqi Khan Thursday underlined the need for global leaders to take urgent action for protecting biodiversity and mitigate human activities that are resulting in climate change, land and ocean degradation, pollution and a whole lot more.
In a tweet, he said, “Nature and biodiversity loss was so severe that it poses grave risks to our health, economy and livelihoods.
Adding that pandemics, heatwaves, super floods, wildfires, decline of wildlife and climate change are all symptoms of our dangerously unbalanced relationship with the natural world. We can’t ignore it any longer, and we must act promptly.”
He further elaborated ,“The Leaders’ Pledge for Nature marks a pivotal moment with countries demonstrating real leadership from the highest political level, and committing to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.
We call on all leaders to build on this ambition at the UN Summit on Biodiversity together, they must develop and agree on a shared plan for biodiversity and climate change. There has never been a more crucial time to act for nature than now.”
In the past year, a series of major reports have given global attention to the biodiversity crisis, with nature currently declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history.
The WWF Living Planet Report 2020, released earlier this month, revealed a 68 per cent decline in vertebrate populations globally since 1970, driven by the way we currently produce and consume,he added.
He highlighted that this accelerating crisis was causing irreversible harm to our life support systems, aggravating poverty and inequalities, increasing risk of future zoonotic pandemics and contributing significantly to climate change.
The rising costs to societies and the economy require biodiversity loss to be halted and reversed with urgency if we want to achieve our climate objectives and the Sustainable Development Goals.
