Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressly committed to better protect the habitat of animals and plants. Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron called on partners to join a global alliance at the “One Planet Summit” on Monday in Paris. Want 50 states 30 Protect percent of land and sea areas by 2030.

Now finally make an effort Efforts must be increased to preserve biological diversity, warned Merkel, who was connected to the summit via video . That doesn’t have to happen sometime, but now, otherwise the consequences are irreversible.

Germany undertakes to 2030 each 30 percent of the land and sea areas to be placed under protection. A few months ago, the EU had the 30 – percent target for the community of 27 States specified.

Verifiable target At the summit, Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado supported the initiative “High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People”. “Action has to be taken today,” he said. Macron announced that France would already meet the target in the coming year. With the common commitment one now has a verifiable goal, said the 30 – year old.

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also spoke at the “One Planet Summit”. “The destruction of nature must be stopped,” demanded Johnson.

Most of the guests were connected by video because of the pandemic. The focus of the summit was the topic of biodiversity, not least because of the Covid pandemic.

Era of pandemics looming “We have spoken many times about the links between biodiversity loss and Covid,” said von der Leyen. “And if we don’t act urgently to protect our nature, we may be at the dawn of an era of pandemics,” she warned.

By the The destruction of ecosystems and human intervention in nature come into contact with previously separated species. The risk of disease transmission from animals to humans is growing.

Specifically, the EU will be involved in the new “Prezode” initiative. The scientific project aims to bundle existing projects. Several hundred million euros are also to be invested in research in the coming years.

Green Wall One focus of the summit was on Africa. Macron announced that the international community wants to support a stalled environmental project in the Sahel with almost twelve billion euros. The “Great Green Wall” project is to plant thousands of kilometers of trees like a green ribbon in the Sahel region – from Dakar to Djibouti. This is to stop the spread of the Sahara and thus the desertification. This is also intended to fight against famine and drought in the region. “The challenge to 2030 is huge,” said Macron.

Prince Charles also called out companies at the event in Paris all over the world to invest and presented his project “Terra Carta”. The goal is to bring prosperity in harmony with nature, people and the planet in the coming decade, he said. With the initiative, the Prince of Wales wants to collect 7.3 billion pounds (around 8.1 billion euros) for green projects by the year 2022. The 72 – year-old British heir to the throne has been publicly committed to protecting the climate for decades.

Promise a lot, do nothing? The environmental organization Greenpeace praised the merger of the 50 States to protect the habitats of humans and animals. It is about “multilateralism, which we need if we want to protect biological diversity and protect ourselves from future pandemics”. The organization WWF Germany announced in the evening that the large financial injections hoped for by nature conservationists for the protection of nature had not materialized. Financial resources are “a key factor in stopping the extinction of species and the climate crisis”.

Criticism also came from the leading climate activist Greta Thunberg – she thought the event was just empty talk. “Live from the One Planet Summit in Paris: blah nature, blah important, blah ambitious, blah green investments, blah green opportunities, blah green growth,” wrote the Swede on Twitter.

Macron said he would like to thank all civil society representatives and those who have felt for years that things are not going fast enough. They would have paved the way and not waited for anything to happen. “I know how impatient you are,” said Macron.

“Everything we have said today, we will consolidate, implement, measure and verify at regular intervals”, promised the French head of state Der “One Planet Summit” was launched by France, the World Bank and the United Nations – so far there have been meetings in Paris 2017, New York 2018 and Nairobi 2019. The aim is to accelerate the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement and to encourage more investment in climate protection.

(kbe)