Mighty Earth Helps Lobby Globally for a Successful Leaders’ Pledge for Nature
Working with colleagues in the 250 organization-strong Planetary Emergency Partnership, Mighty Earth worked globally to help ensure 70 Heads of State and Government signed on to a breakthrough Leaders’ Pledge for Nature unveiled September 28 at the United Nations in New York – committing to accelerate decisive action on nature in response to the planetary nature, climate, health, and biodiversity emergencies.
World leaders including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Angela Merkel, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, Costa Rica’s Carlos Quesada, Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta, and EU President Ursula von der Leyen were among 70 leaders who pledged to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 and undertake an ambitious 10-point set of urgent actions over the next 10 years as part of the UN Decade of Action to achieve Sustainable Development. The Leaders’ Pledge highlights how the interdependent crises of biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation, and climate change are causing irreversible harm to our life support systems, aggravating poverty and inequality, and increasing the risk of future zoonotic pandemics.
Coming days ahead of a major UN Summit on Biodiversity, the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature commitments include a renewed effort to reduce deforestation, halt unsustainable fishing practices, clamp down on waste plastics, eliminate environmentally harmful subsidies, and accelerate the transition towards sustainable food production systems and circular economies.
“We’re so grateful to the visionary leadership of the Planetary Emergency group at this time of crisis, which has stepped up and leveraged people power to help set the stage for a stronger, successful COP — even as some world leaders are turning their backs on the Paris agreement,” said Etelle Higonnet, Senior Campaign Director at Mighty Earth. “We were excited to do our part, and approached our high-level contacts in dozens of countries to help ensure as many world leaders as possible signed this Leaders’ Pledge for Nature to help protect and enhance nature and biodiversity. We hope this is a turning point, and that this moment will spark widespread recognition of the immense role that nature and biodiversity will need to play in tackling the global planetary emergency.”
The Presidents of the U.S., Brazil, and China have all yet to sign the Leaders’ Pledge, despite China’s President Xi hosting the post-2020 UN global biodiversity framework summit in Kunming in China next year.
