Leaders prepare to discuss the destruction of the natural world as the international community negotiates a set of targets for the next decade
Munir Akram, President of the Economic and Social Council, is addressing the summit right now, calling for a re-imagination of GDP and nature’s role in human wealth.
Egyptian president Mohammed Al-Sisi, who was host of the biodiversity COP14, is up next.
UN secretary-general António Guterres continues the sombre tone of the summit’s opening, outlining the poor state of life on Earth.
“Humanity is waging war on nature”, he declares, underscoring the importance of protecting biodiversity to the Paris agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. Guterres links biodiversity to human health, livelihoods and economies.
Related: UN draft plan sets 2030 target to avert Earth’s sixth mass extinction
