From the Nature for Life Hub to COP 26
By Joey Conway
Joey Conway is a Research Assistant for the UN Development Program’s Global Program on Nature for Development. His work has focused on communications and program management related to the 2021 Equator Prize and Nature for Life Hub. Joey is a recent graduate of SIPA where he received an MPA in Development Practice with a specialization in Gender and Public Policy while being one of the Co-Presidents of ECO throughout 2020. Joey’s professional interests are sustainable food systems, environmental justice, and Indigenous Peoples’ rights.
“Build back better, blah blah blah,” mocked Greta Thunberg as she stood at the podium of the Pre-COP Youth Climate Summit in Milan this September. I smiled and nodded as I watched the young Swedish climate activist call out world leaders for their virtue signaling in her famous “blah blah blah” speech. What’s ironic is that as I watched the clip on a short break from work, I was in the midst of implementing the communications strategy of a three-day, virtual UN event that would invite world leaders to outline their commitments and aspirations for nature. The type of rhetoric that Greta might call “blah blah blah.”
However, this event was different. It was not just a place to let world leaders think out loud about vague actions they could take to protect nature. It was a platform that brought together world leaders in politics and business with activists, Indigenous leaders, and youth to showcase that the solutions to our climate and biodiversity crises already exist. It was an event designed to create a wave of momentum ahead of two monumental International conferences – COP15 and COP26. This event was the Nature for Life Hub 2021.
The Nature for Life Hub: Vision and Outcomes
The Nature for Life Hub 2021 was a four-day, virtual event that was convened by UN Development Program’s Global Program on Nature for Development in partnership with over 30 organizations. Its goal was to highlight how we can - and must - put nature at the heart of everything we do.
Over four days and ten sessions, the Nature for Life Hub curated 15 hours of content that outlined how we can kickstart a decade of hope and action for nature. From the President of Ethiopia to youth activists in Indonesia to regenerative farmers in Kyrgyzstan, the Nature for Life Hub gave a global perspective on the growing ambitions of world leaders and the inspiring local action of communities to protect nature. Each day focused on a different sector that can be transformed to be nature-positive, which included Indigenous Peoples and sustainable development, food systems and supply chains, and finance.
Most importantly, this event was more than story-telling – it included major commitments as well:
During the opening session, nine organizations representing some of the largest names in philanthropy and business made the largest financial pledge to protect nature of $5 billion, including specific allotments for Indigenous land titling.
On Day 1, the President of Microsoft joined the launch of the UN Biodiversity Lab, marking a direct partnership between the tech giant and a platform that will provide nature-specific spatial data to governments to plan their development activities.
On Day 2, CEOs and high-level executives from Lavazza, Unilever, and Mane (some of the largest multi-national agricultural commodity corporations) pledged to mainstream community and environmental well-being into their supply chains.
On Day 3, Sharon Ikeazor, Minister of State of Environment, Nigeria, encouraged other nations to follow their lead as they create the Nigerian portion of the “Great Green Wall” to stop desertification in Sub-Saharan Africa.
On top of that, through the event’s communications campaign information on the Nature for Life Hub reached over 33 million people on social media and led to over 165,000 people watching the event live at a time when “Zoom fatigue” has gripped the world. In the end, there was certainly some of what critics could call blah blah blah, but this event and its communications efforts put nature at the forefront of global conversations on climate and biodiversity at one of the most crucial times in human history.
The Origin and Future of the “Rio Conventions”
That significance is because this October and November, world leaders will convene in Kunming, China (virtually) and Glasgow, Scotland for the long-delayed Conference of the Parties (COP) for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The virtual conference in Kunming will be the first half of the CBD’s 15th COP (a.k.a COP15) and Glasgow will mark the UNFCCC’s 26th COP (a.k.a COP26) since the founding of the three “Rio Conventions.” Signed in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro at the United Nations’ Earth Summit, the three Rio Conventions - CBD, UNFCCC, and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) - have led to some of the most famous International agreements on climate, conservation, and agriculture. For example, the Paris Climate Accords were ratified at the UNFCCC COP in Paris in 2015.
Unfortunately, much has changed since 1992. Biodiversity is declining faster than at any other time in human history. According to the IPCC, humanity must cut emissions in half by 2030 to avoid catastrophic climate disaster. Over 1.3 billion people are trapped on degrading agricultural land, threatening development goals and global food security. Lastly, a brand-new report from UNEP found that even if all countries were to complete their newly updated Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Climate Accords that the world would still reach ~2.7˚C of warming. Humanity, biodiversity, and the planet do not have time for another set of underwhelming COPs. The world needs bold action now.
The Modern Environmental Movement’s Biggest Blind Spot
What is even more alarming is that world leaders have been slow to prioritize humanity’s greatest asset against the triple threat of climate change, biodiversity loss, and desertification – nature. Nature-based solutions (e.g., mangrove restoration, forest protection, and regenerative farming) makeup over a third of the most cost-effective pathways to solve climate change. Natural ecosystems provide billions of dollars of services, sequester carbon, reduce the threat of natural disasters, protect endangered species, and can reverse desertification. Yet, only 3% of public funding goes to nature-based solutions. Even worse is the lack of support and attention provided to the global stewards of nature – Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. In addition to the glaring human rights violations of genocide, marginalization, and mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples around the world, IPLCs have received less than one percent of Official Development Assistance (ODA) between 2011-2020 even though they are the greatest defenders of essential habitat and ecosystems in the world. Nature and the IPLCs that protect it are the modern environmental movement’s biggest blind spot.
COP 26 & Beyond – Towards a Decade of Hope and Action for Nature
Nature and Indigenous Peoples need to be at the center of those commitments and actions taken at COP26. That is exactly why the Nature for Life Hub came at such a crucial time. Because if the solutions outlined throughout the Hub are scaled appropriately, then there can finally be the decade of hope, transformation, and action that humanity so desperately needs. We will finally be able to create a just society that works with nature, rather than against it.
Here is the potential of investing in nature and the IPLCs that have safeguarded their homes for millennia:
Large-scale changes in the food, infrastructure, and energy sectors that increase the protection of nature could create $10 trillion in annual business value and 395 million jobs by 2030.
91% of IPLC lands are in good or fair ecological condition. The more sovereignty, rights, and power given back to IPLCs, the greater the chance to solve our planetary crises.
Regenerative agriculture could provide a $1.9 trillion financial return by 2050 on an investment of $57 billion.
There is no shortage of ways that government and business leaders can work to create the nature-positive future that our current situation demands. What we truly need is bold leadership, ambition, and most importantly, urgent action – not blah blah blah. The world needs leaders that will put their money where their mouth is. Investing their public dollars into a just and nature-positive COVID-19 recovery, especially since the loss of nature is a key contributor to zoonotic diseases. Creating budgets that end subsidies for fossil fuel companies and unsustainable agriculture and instead invest in the communities that drive our supply chains and economies. Ending militarized attacks against the Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities that defend the very ecosystems that any global climate solution will depend upon.
With COP26 having started yesterday, 10/31, it is time to hold world leaders accountable to their commitments and make sure that they put nature at the heart of all that they do – for people, for the planet, for life.
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You can watch all of the sessions from each day of the Nature for Life Hub 2021 at the following links and learn more about the initiatives of the Hub’s partners here.
Opening: Transformative Action for Nature and People // Day 1: Transforming Our Relationship with the Planet // Day 2: Transforming Production, From the Ground Up // Day 3: Toward a Nature-Positive Future