Uniting for nature, climate, and people at COP30: A call to action from Abu Dhabi to Belém

We are at a pivotal moment for people and the planet. Our world is on a 2.0 trajectory. One million species face extinction, and global wildlife populations have declined by 70% since 1970. There are clear warnings that the systems that sustain life are under threat. Our planet is at its limits: we are in breach of 7 of our 9 planetary boundaries. The Earth is reaching the limits of its self-regulating capability: we have already failed to meet the main climate change target of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees and will likely push our ecosystems beyond irreversible tipping points.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are not parallel crises but two sides of the same coin. Each amplifies the other and threatens our economies, our societies and the wellbeing of people – especially Indigenous Peoples, local communities, women, and youth who are custodians of our natural world and bear the heaviest burdens of its loss. And yet at the very moment, when the world needs nature most to strengthen resilience, stabilise climate and to secure food and water security, political will and financial support are faltering and we are falling behind on the commitments of the Global Biodiversity Framework, the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.

This is the very paradox we confronted at the recent IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi - a Congress that brought us hope, as over 10,000 participants came together to demonstrate – and learn – how conservation actions can enable nature and humanity to thrive together while building a climate-resilient future. And it is this hope, this conviction, articulated at the IUCN Congress in the Abu Dhabi Call to Action and the Nature’s Promise for Climate and People, and sparked earlier this year at the 3rd UN Oceans Conference in Nice, that we bring now to COP30 in Belem: Nature is the foundation of human and planetary well-being. Its forests and oceans are the key to many climate solutions. Collective action across countries, across the whole of society, and across scientific and Indigenous knowledge can create a just, resilient and nature-positive world. Together and united in action, the conservation community at the IUCN Congress affirmed that it will move from
promises and commitments to action.

As the world meets at COP30 in the heart of the Amazon and responds to the global Mutirão, we are reminded of the value of multilateralism and the importance of the synergies agenda and that the frontline defence in a world of overshoot is indeed nature.

The Nature’s Promise for Climate & People will come together to thoroughly and candidly uncover and explore some critical questions: Are we moving fast enough to hold biodiversity loss? What do we do to restore ecosystems at the scale and pace that nature demands? How do we ensure that finance and technology are reaching the people on the frontlines? Our answers will be honest and ambitious because the next 5 years will determine if these promises become reality.

This ‘implementation COP’ raises the bar for climate action and the world demands that we all rise to the occasion.

IUCN and the conservation community stand ready, willing, able and committed to implement solutions – at scale – by leveraging the very best of science, indigenous knowledge and collective lived experience and practice of the Union. So on COP30’s Forests, Oceans & Biodiversity day, we reaffirm our promise to continue to protect nature not only as a moral responsibility but also a profound opportunity to for long-term climate resilience, human dignity and prosperity.

For more information, visit IUCN at COP30 event page.