Susana Muhamad, Colombia's environment minister, cautions that neglecting nature restoration in favor of solely reducing carbon emissions could lead to catastrophic global heating and societal collapse.
Patrick Greenfield reports for The Guardian.
In short:
- Muhamad emphasized that both decarbonization and ecosystem restoration are essential to stabilize the climate.
- The Cop16 summit will aim to elevate the political importance of biodiversity alongside the climate agenda.
- Muhamad urged wealthier nations to fulfill funding promises for nature restoration.
Key quote:
"The other side of the coin is to restore nature and allow nature to take again its power over planet Earth so that we can really stabilize the climate."
— Susana Muhamad, Cop16 president
Why this matters:
Overlooking ecosystem restoration while combating climate change could trigger further environmental degradation, making global heating and its impacts even harder to manage.
Related: Climate change: For big emissions reductions, we need to think small
