Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt (16 November 2022) – Climate champions of the 2015 Paris Agreement that committed the world to limiting global warming to as close as possible to 1.5C are now urging world leaders to secure a strong sister agreement for nature in Montreal, at the UN Convention of Biological Diversity's COP15.

The climate experts state that a lack of an ambitious and transformative global biodiversity agreement at the COP15 UN biodiversity conference in December risks undermining the planet’s ability to deliver on key climate goals.

This as countries meet in Egypt at the COP27 UN climate conference for a second week of negotiations. 

Signatories to the call include:

• Laurent Fabius, President of COP21
• Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, President of COP20 and CBD COP15 Action Agenda for Nature and People Champion
• Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework on the Convention of Climate Change (2010-2016)
• Laurence Tubiana, France’s Climate Change Ambassador and Special Representative for COP21

Supporting signatories include

• Nigel Topping, COP26 High Level Climate Champion

“There is no pathway to limiting global warming to 1.5C without action on protecting and restoring nature. Only by taking urgent action to halt and reverse the loss of nature this decade, while continuing to step up efforts to rapidly decarbonize our economies, can we hope to achieve the promise of the Paris Agreement. To be clear: achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 is only possible if we also act now to deliver a nature-positive society,” says the climate leaders.

The statement comes on the dedicated ‘Biodiversity Day’ at the climate conference with the climate leaders stating: “COP27 must go further in recognising nature’s fundamental role as part of the climate solution and catalyze concrete measures to protect and restore nature.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The statement is available online here