KHUNGEKA NJOBE: Bold action needed to address triple planetary and development challenges

International meetings to address what many regard as an existential crisis for humanity have been coming thick and fast in the closing months of 2022.

November saw two conference of the parties (COPs) wrapping up their business, the first being the widely reported COP27 on climate in Egypt, which overlapped with the less prominent Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species COP19 in Panama, aimed at regulating wildlife trade. Around the same time in Uruguay, opening negotiations were taking place following the UN Environment Assembly’s decision in March to pursue a globally binding international treaty to end plastic pollution.

To round out the year, the upcoming Convention on Biodiversity COP15 takes place in Montreal, Canada, from December 7 to 19, with the aim of reaching an agreement on a Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Arguably, this COP may be the most significant of them all when it comes to securing a future for people and nature.

These global platforms are key to addressing what scientists and policymakers across disciplines term the triple planetary crises: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. These are interrelated. Climate change and biodiversity loss are often termed two sides of the same coin and are inextricably linked to the excesses in our production and consumption patterns, which generate not only greenhouse gas emissions but also pollution of our water, air and public spaces.

There is no doubt that the climate crisis poses an existential threat to humanity. Consequently, the call for climate action has attracted more of the attention of mainstream actors in society and leaders globally.

Even under the cloud of uncertain geopolitical circumstances, COP27 attracted influential global leaders, among them our own President Cyril Ramaphosa, who presented the Just Energy Transition Partnership Investment Plan (JETP-IP) to partners from developed countries. Media reports suggest SA’s JETP-IP was well received and has set us on a firmer path towards our just energy transition. It will surely get us started on the decarbonisation of our energy system, though this endeavour will require substantial additional financing.

Delegates to the COP27, hosted on African soil, were also commended for progress made towards establishing the foundations for a Loss and Damage Fund, which was a significant outcome of the climate COP. However, it was a bittersweet victory considering the current reality where extreme weather events are already costing people’s lives and property and infrastructure is being devastated. Not only are household level livelihoods being ruined but so is the economy, which in our case has barely recovered. By way of example, recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal were estimated to cause losses of about R7bn to businesses in that province.

The urgency of climate action should be the preoccupation of all of society, locally and globally. It was therefore a deep let-down to those who already suffer and are greatly vulnerable to the worst effects of the changing climate and extreme weather events that no progress was made on phasing out fossil fuels, a key action to maintain global temperature change to within 1.5℃. It was also a let-down that the scale of finance needed for rapid climate action to address climate impacts and build resilience could not be unlocked at this event, which had most of the world’s attention.

As global delegates gather in Montreal with the aim to reach agreement on the Global Biodiversity Framework that seeks to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity globally, they will already be on the back foot.

Not only has the original deadline to conclude the framework by 2020 not been met, but at the recent climate COP27 negotiators failed to recognise that climate objectives are dependent on healthy ecosystems and that the protection and restoration of biodiversity buffers society from the harshness of the extreme weather events.

Delegates in Montreal will, more than ever, be under pressure to conclude and adopt a framework that not only safeguards people and societies from the most severe effects of climate change but also halts and reverses biodiversity loss, through the expansion of protected areas, ecosystem restoration, regenerative production practices and adequate financing to enable these interventions. This is their moment.

Biodiversity is the foundation for economic prosperity, is essential for our food security and underpins the health and wellbeing of all people. In our country the persistent and prevailing conditions of poverty, unemployment and inequality among many citizens further compels us to pursue not only achievement of biodiversity conservation objectives and positive climate action, but also inclusive and just socioeconomic outcomes.

We must recognise that when nature is degraded and biodiversity is lost we deepen the triple development challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality. Similarly, if we do not embark on a transition that is sustainable, inclusive and just, a low carbon and nature-positive socioeconomic outcome for SA may not be achieved.

Bold action and an all-of-society approach is imperative to meaningfully address all three planetary crises with the triple development challenges we face. We will do well to work together and be inspired by the wisdom of an oft-cited African proverb, which says, “If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

• Njobe is head of programme at WWF SA.