Nature at the UN: The ‘Place’ of Planet in International Agreements
Rosalind Warner, RCEN SDG Caucus Chair & RCEN Biodiversity Caucus Steering Committee Member
Photo by Rosalind Warner
The United Nations' Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development is often described as encompassing five pillars: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnerships. Despite the planet's crucial role as our common home and the foundation for achieving the other pillars, its voice seems surprisingly muted in global policy discussions. It’s even more apparent that international agreements and laws need to recognize the inherent and inalienable rights of nature.
Despite efforts at the recent Cop 16 of the Biodiversity Convention meeting in Colombia on joining up the climate, desertification and biodiversity ‘organs’ of the UN, connections between them remain weak. The recent UN Summit of the Future, intended to reinvigorate sustainable development efforts for the coming years until 2030 and beyond, addressed environmental concerns, but often as an undercurrent rather than a primary focus.
Nevertheless, environmental challenges are making their presence felt through rising sea levels, increasingly powerful storms, uncontrollable forest fires (such as the recent conflagration in Jasper, Alberta), accelerating species loss and pollution crises affecting oceans, lands, and skies. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, aptly quoted Antonio Gramsci: "The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters."
Unfortunately world leaders have little to say in response, which is surprising given the September Summit’s focus on the Pact for Future Generations and the accompanying national promises on the “urgent need to conserve, restore, and sustainably use our planet's ecosystems” as well as the commitment to “acknowledging the intrinsic value of animal and plant species beyond their ecosystem functions [29b].”
Photo by Rosalind Warner
With the planet at a crossroads, decisions made today will have a large impact on the future. What strategies are available in the given moment for the global community to make a difference for the future? 3 possible pathways present themselves:
1. Mainstreaming biodiversity: Integrating biodiversity considerations into all aspects of decision-making, from urban planning to foreign policy. Encouraging all levels of government and all societies to use an ‘ecological lens’ when making decisions has the potential to ensure that nature is considered in economic, social and political decision making.
2. Strengthening legal frameworks: There are numerous existing environmental laws that are weakly enforced. In addition, enhancing enforcement and pursuing violators through new legal concepts such as ecocide offers yet another route to ensuring that nature is respected, protected, and that rights to a healthy environment are fulfilled.
3. Addressing root causes: This pathway involves examining the fundamental drivers of biodiversity loss. These fundamental drivers often include: land use changes, invasive species, pollution, overexploitation of natural resources and increasingly, climate change (increasingly recognized as a major cause). Policies and regulations that address these root causes can also expect to have effects that are mutually beneficial for humans and nature. Reducing pollution means improved human health, and reducing overconsumption enables nature to continue to offer ecosystem services vital to human survivability.
Photo by Rosalind Warner
The Pact's approach to biodiversity aligns with the concept of "living in harmony with nature," emphasizing the need for a fundamental shift in our relationship with the natural world [29a]. This holistic view could potentially drive more integrated policies that consider biodiversity, and the planet, in all aspects of decision-making. Framing the relationship between human and non-human in terms of ‘harmony’ captures the complexity of living in the Anthropocene, and so offers some promise toward a more transformational approach to governance.
However, ‘harmony’ can become a facile concept unless it is buttressed with recognition of the intrinsic value of nature and respect for its unique ecological processes and integrity. Without a place at the table, and without a stronger and independent voice at international negotiations, the promise of harmony with nature is lacking that recognition of nature’s intrinsic value as a full subject of governance. As recently stated by Alice Aline-Simard of Nature Quebec in a recent Biodiversity Dialogue, “even if nature did not provide any ecosystem services at all, it would still be necessary to protect it”. Making the case for nature increasingly means recognizing its intrinsic value, whether that stems from the eons of evolution that led to the Holocene, or whether that stems from a simple observation that humans are part of nature, the ethical imperative persists.
We need an effort that buttresses nature’s right to exist, to thrive and to be healthy. Such an approach can begin a journey down the three pathways. Mainstreaming biodiversity means considering nature’s role and contribution in decision making. A commitment to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of nature that are entrenched in natural and constitutional laws can strengthen enforcement and at the same time address the root causes of biodiversity loss.
While progress has been made in recognizing the planet's importance in global policy discussions, there remains a need for a stronger, more independent voice for nature in international negotiations. Achieving true harmony with nature will require a more transformational approach to governance that fully embraces the value of all that unites us into one planetary community.
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