Transcript

Hello friends and hello colleagues. Today marks the International Day for Biological Diversity, reminding us of the urgent need to take action to stop the loss of biodiversity, which is one of the most significant crises that we face.

The planet is losing over 10,000 species each year, which is 1,000 times faster than the historical baseline. However, when we talk about the challenges facing our planet, climate change usually takes precedence. We tend to treat climate change and biodiversity loss as separate issues, to the point where we have separate COPs for each.

This year’s International Day of Biological Diversity is a reminder of the hope and determination we have with the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at COP15.

We hope to take decisive action with policies that recognize the interconnectedness of climate change and biodiversity loss as two sides of the same coin. With guidance and determination from governments, Indigenous peoples, local communities, non-state actors, and individuals, we can all do our part to stop biodiversity loss.

We can move from agreement to action. Because when we lose nature, we lose ourselves — Razan Al Mubarak, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion from the COP28 Presidency.