The fourth edition of the “One Planet Summit”, a summit dedicated to the defense of the environment, in particular flora and fauna, opened on Monday January 11, 2021 in Paris. By videoconference, heads of state, business leaders and representatives of NGOs took the floor to talk about the impact of the health crisis on the environment and the need to protect certain endangered species.
The talks during this crucial summit for the protection of the environment in this context of health crisis will revolve around the protection of land and sea spaces, the promotion of agroecology, the mobilization of funding and the preservation of forests. .
Among the guests are UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, World Bank President David Malpass, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Head of Government Boris Johnson.
France finds in this meeting an “opportunity for convergence between these subjects which are too often taken separately.” Indeed, the environment is always threatened by global warming due to the emission of greenhouse gases or epidemics of all kinds, so “the preservation of biodiversity is somewhere our collective life insurance,” believe the Elysee.
The summit intends to relaunch the “Coalition of high ambition for nature”, headed by France, Great Britain and Costa Rica. The objective of such an initiative is to be able to integrate some fifty countries committed to devoting 30% of their territory to protected areas, which will be a decisive step towards the next global negotiations on biodiversity.
Another research alliance called Prezode will also be launched. It will aim to prevent new pandemics originating from animal reservoirs. To this end, a budget of 350 million euros is planned to allow “the whole community of researchers, local communities and decision-makers to define appropriate solutions that make it possible to identify and reduce the main factors to the origin of the risk of zoonotic emergence. “ One indicates at the Elysee.
