Distinguished audience, Ladies and gentlemen,
The world needs to tackle the triple crisis on biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution. Now is the time to act. Ahead of December’s landmark UN Biodiversity Conference, Finland reaffirms our commitment to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, and to secure a transformative global biodiversity agreement that delivers a nature-positive world for all. This includes action to protect, restore and conserve land and ocean globally, and to transform our economies to work with nature, not against it.
It requires everybody’s involvement. We need our governments, private and public sectors. We need civil society, indigenous peoples, youth, landowners and academia. With the whole-of-society approach, we can minimize harmful impact on biodiversity and promote nature-positive action.
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Finland underlines the importance of Nature–based solutions to conserve, restore and sustainably use and manage our ecosystems and species. Promoting sustainable patterns of production and consumption, as well as circular economy, is crucial. In addition, we need to enhance synergies and collaboration between international agreements and conventions. This is key to success in halting biodiversity loss by 2030.
The 15th Conference of the Parties of the UN Convention on Biodiversity will be essential. We are striving for an ambitious post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework with full and effective implementation.
We also urgently need to enhance and speed up our efforts to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. This is particularly relevant for the rapidly warming Arctic regions. The melting in the Arctic accelerates climate change on a global scale. As I have often stated: If we lose the Arctic, we lose the globe.
Together we can save our life support systems. Let’s get it done now.
