Research clearly shows that species and habitats on Earth are disappearing and being destroyed at an ever-increasing rate. The cause lies primarily in human activity, such as unsustainable agriculture and forestry, overfishing, environmental pollution and climate change.
Ultimately, our existence is threatened because we rely on healthy ecosystems for our societies to function. so that we have food, clean drinking water and fresh air to breathe.
It was therefore a milestone when, after long and difficult negotiations, the world’s countries managed to agree on a rescue plan for nature and a global framework for biodiversity. It happened just before 3 a.m. on a cold December night in 2022, at the UN environmental meeting COP15 in Canada.
“We now have a package in our hands that I believe can help us work together to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, which is a good thing for all people on earth,” said Chinese Chairman Huang Runqiu, his voice unexpectedly animated as he finally managed to slam the gavel on the table.
The tense atmosphere relaxed. Negotiators and delegates from around the world applauded, as did representatives from business, civil society and indigenous peoples.
The rescue plan, that is for the Kunming-Montreal Framework consists of 23 so-called action goals, which together are intended to lead to the overall goal: halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 so that ecosystems can recover and we have “a world in which people live in harmony with nature” by 2050.
In order to put more than just nice words on a piece of paper, all countries were given the task of presenting their own national action plan within two years on how to stop the loss of biological diversity in their own country.
It should be submitted before the COP16 environmental meeting in Colombia in 2024.
But Sweden didn’t. Instead, the government took advantage of a loophole intended for poor countries that may need more time and resources to create a sufficiently sophisticated action plan.
So expectations were high when the government finally presented Sweden’s plan, just over a year and a half after the deadline.
According to the study by the Environmental Protection Agency, the starting point is that 80 percent of the natural species considered important and typical for our country – as well as 40 percent of the animal, plant and fungal species – have a poor conservation status. Efforts are needed to prevent their disappearance.
So what needs to be done and how should it be done?
On this point, Sweden’s action plan is cryptic.
First of all In plain language, it appears that twelve of Sweden’s sixteen environmental quality targets cannot be achieved with either existing or planned policy instruments.
The problems are then described in relatively detail. For example, it can be read that forests worthy of protection are still being cut down, “which impairs ecological functionality and leads to the loss of important habitats for endangered species.”
In addition, it appears that important habitats in the agricultural landscape are disappearing and the environmental status of the sea is “anything but satisfactory”.
But nowhere are any new, concrete measures presented that could change that. Not even the clear UN agreement to protect 30 percent of sea and land is included in the Swedish action plan.
Sweden’s Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari (l.) has made a name for herself by announcing that she is now introducing two new milestones in the environmental target system by 2030. The aim is to increase greenery in cities and stop the loss of wild pollinators.
“Sweden needs to talk more about flowers and bees because they are extremely important,” she said at the presentation.
But these are things we have already committed to through EU nature conservation law. It’s nothing new.
Researcher Torbjörn Ebenhard, He is head of research at the Swedish University of Agriculture and has been taking part in negotiations under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity for many years. He emphasizes that the purpose of the UN global biodiversity framework was for countries to carry out a careful analysis of the situation at home to understand what further needs to be done to achieve the action goals in the UN framework.
He describes the action plan as a “duty-bound safeguard” – and that it appears that all sharp and potentially new commitments have been deleted.
The COP17 environmental meeting begins in Armenia on October 19th this year. The countries must then report on how work to implement the national action plans is progressing. The aim is to obtain a clear picture of the global situation. Are we staying true to the vision of the framework – and are the measures that countries have committed to implementing sufficient?
However, to be meaningful, action plans must be clear and ambitious.
A rich and sparsely populated country like Sweden could have done better. We need to talk clearly about more than just flowers and bees in our beautiful nature.
Read more:
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