Key Highlights of the report:
- The Global Assessment contained a litany of estimates made after a three-year review of some 15,000 scientific papers that showed the profound impact of the rise of a globalised industrial society on the planet over the past half century.
- Up to one million of Earth’s estimated eight million plant, insect and animal species is at risk of extinction, many within decades.
- 40% of amphibian species and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened.
- This is because of relentless pursuit of economic growth, twinned with the impact of climate change. Industrial farming and fishing are major drivers of threat.
- Only a wide-ranging transformation of the global economic and financial system could pull ecosystems back from the brink of collapse.
Comment:
- The report’s message echoed the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which said in October that profound economic and social changes would be needed to curb greenhouse gases quickly enough to avert the most devastating consequences of a warming world.
- The findings will also add to pressure for countries to agree bold action to protect wildlife at a major conference on biodiversity due to take place in China towards the end of next year.
