Madrid (Spain), December 11, 2019 – @ MinambienteCo- On the eve of a critical year for environmental decision-making, Colombia, Germany and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) announced today that Colombia will host the World Environment Day 2020 in collaboration with Germany and which will have a focus on biodiversity.
World Environment Day is celebrated every year on June 5. It is the emblematic day of the United Nations to promote awareness and action in favor of the environment worldwide. Over the years, it has grown into the world’s largest platform for public environmental disclosure and is celebrated by millions of people in more than 100 countries.
Making the announcement on the sidelines of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP25) in Madrid, Spain, Ricardo Lozano, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia; Jochen Flasbarth, Secretary of State for the Environment of Germany; and Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program, stressed that with a million species of plants and animals in danger of extinction, there has never been a more important time to focus on the issue of biodiversity.
“2020 is a year of urgency, ambition and action to address the crisis facing nature; it is also an opportunity to fully incorporate nature-based solutions into global climate action,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UNEP “Every year, World Environment Day is a powerful platform to accelerate, expand and involve people, communities and governments around the world to take action on the critical environmental challenges facing the planet. We thank Colombia and Germany for demonstrate leadership in this effort. “
2020 is a critical year for nations’ commitments to preserve and restore biodiversity, with China hosting the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Kunming. Next year also offers the opportunity to prepare the beginning of the United Nations Decade for the Restoration of Ecosystems (2021-2030), aimed at massively expanding the restoration of degraded and destroyed ecosystems to combat the climate crisis and improve the Food security, water supply and biodiversity.
“In Colombia we will face a major challenge in 2020, and it is to organize the third and final meeting of the GTCA (open-ended working group) of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework before the COP in China. In Colombia, we are willing to work together to reach an agreement that allows us to move positively towards ambitious results at the COP that will be held in China. We welcome Germany’s support gesture in this global effort and look forward to a successful collaboration,” said Ricardo Lozano, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia.
Listed as one of the “megadiverse” countries in the world and home to about 10 percent of the planet’s biodiversity, Colombia ranks first in diversity of bird and orchid species and second in plants, butterflies, freshwater fish and amphibians. The country has several areas of high biological diversity in the Andean ecosystems, with a wide variety of endemic species. It also has part of the Amazon rainforest and the humid ecosystems of the Chocó biogeographical area.
“There is no better time to meet on the planet than now,” said Jochen Flasbarth, German Secretary of State for the Environment. “Climate action and biodiversity conservation are two sides of the same coin. We need to develop policies that stop the extinction of plant and animal species, Germany is pleased to support Colombia and other member states so that 2020 is a year that begins the action for biodiversity. ”
According to the historical report published this year by the Intergovernmental Scientific-Normative Platform on Biological Diversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), current negative trends in biodiversity and ecosystems are expected to undermine progress towards 80% of the goals of the Sustainable Development Goals related to poverty, hunger, health, sustainable consumption and production, water, cities, climate, oceans and land.