High hopes for biodiversity, but who will pay?

Zero: The Climate Race

Bloomberg

Technology, Business, Science

4.7 • 219 Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The world is in the middle of the sixth mass extinction and this time it's being driven by human activity. Slowing it down will provide benefits for tackling climate change, and solutions to reign in global warming will help stem biodiversity loss. But this win-win scenario isn't straightforward to put into action.

In December, world leaders gathered at COP15 in Montreal and agreed upon a new global biodiversity framework, with 23 targets including a goal of protecting 30% of all land, waters and oceans by 2030. The details on how that target will be implemented, however, are vague, and vast amounts of money will be needed to fund nature protection in biodiversity-rich, economically poor countries.

Akshat Rathi speaks with Rebecca Shaw, chief scientist at the World Wildlife Fund; Monica Medina, the US assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs; and Bloomberg Green’s Eric Roston, about what it means to protect biodiversity, and who will fund it.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The high seas is not just a poetic phrase, but a legal designation.
0:16.0	Anything 200 miles off the coast of a country is not subject to any specific laws.
0:22.3	Or, in the United Nations lingo, they are called an area beyond national jurisdiction.
0:28.5	That's nearly half the earth's surface, by the way.
0:31.3	And until recently, there was no legal route to protect marine life there.
0:36.3	But in March, after nearly two decades of negotiations,
0:39.3	delegates at a UN meeting agreed on a pathway to protect these areas. This came only
0:45.3	months after a big UN agreement signed in Montreal at COP 15, that, among other goals,
0:51.3	aims to protect 30% of nature by 2030.
0:55.0	It feels good to hear about this progress, but 2030 is only seven years away.
1:02.0	So it's worth asking, how will all of these pledges come to fruition and where exactly are we starting from?
1:10.0	To answer these questions, I have three guests today.
1:13.9	I'm speaking with Rebecca Shaw, chief scientist at the World Wildlife Fund,
1:17.6	about how something as broad as biodiversity is measured and what the stakes are.
1:22.4	Then I'll speak with Monica Medina of the U.S. State Department
1:25.7	about what can be accomplished when the US
1:28.6	is not a party to either of these treaties.
1:32.6	But first, I'm joined by my colleague Eric Rosten, who attended COP 15 in Montreal to talk
1:37.4	through the backstory.
1:39.3	Because it feels like all this progress happened overnight.
1:43.9	Two major agreements in four months.
1:46.1	But there's more to it than that.
	...

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