Status: 07.12.2022 10:32 a.m
Mankind should stop treating nature like a toilet, said UN Secretary-General Guterres in his speech at the 15th World Conference on Nature. Together with Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, he opened the summit in Montreal.
At the beginning of the World Summit on Nature in Montreal, Canada, UN Secretary-General António Guterres spoke out in favor of peace with nature. The planet needs a strong deal to protect biodiversity, he said at the opening of the conference.
“With our bottomless appetite for uncontrolled and unequal economic growth, humanity has become a weapon of mass destruction,” Guterres said. “We are at war with nature. This conference is about the urgent task of making peace.”
Guterres: Impressed by activists
Mankind treats nature like a toilet and thus commits vicariously suicide, because the loss of biodiversity also entails enormous costs for mankind. The “orgy of destruction” must end, Guterres said.
“No excuses, no delays. Promises must be kept,” Guterres said. He said he was impressed by the young climate activists around the world, but they couldn’t be left alone to put the chaos back in order.
“We must take responsibility for the damage we have caused and act to repair it,” Guterres said. “Despite the dreams of billionaires deluding themselves, there is no Planet B. We have to fix the world we have.”
Trudeau wants high-impact deal
The host of the World Summit on Nature, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, also urged participating nations to sign an agreement that makes an impact. “Nature is threatened, it is being attacked,” says Trudeau. Activists briefly interrupted Trudeau’s speech with a protest.
The World Summit on Nature meets until December 19th. He should conclude a global agreement for the protection of species. Organizers, scientists and representatives of non-governmental organizations are hoping for a groundbreaking agreement. A key goal of the conference is to protect at least 30 percent of the world’s land and sea areas by 2030. A solid financial basis for global species protection should also play a role.
The 15th World Summit on Nature was originally scheduled to take place in China in 2020. Because of the corona pandemic, it was postponed and split up. The first part of the negotiations took place mostly online in Kunming, China, last October.