For one week, Paris will become the capital of biodiversity. From April 29 to May 4, it will host the latest plenary session of IPBES, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services—the equivalent of the IPCC on climate change. This session is particularly important because the 132 member states will be asked to approve the first scientific assessment of the global state of nature.
From April 29 to May 4, Paris will host the 7th plenary session of IPBES, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Over the course of a week, the 132 member states will need to reach agreement on the first scientific assessment of the state of nature. An urgent matter at a time when a mass extinction of life is taking place. Here are the key points for understanding the issues at stake in this session.
IPBES is set to publish the first intergovernmental assessment of the state of nature, similar to the IPCC’s reports on climate change.
1) IPBES, AN ORGANIZATION MODELED AFTER THE IPCC
Described as the “IPCC of biodiversity,” IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) was established in 2012 under the auspices of the United Nations, based on an idea proposed in 2005 by Jacques Chirac. The former French president wanted a mechanism similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, established in 1988, which helped achieve a scientific consensus on the reality and scope of global warming.
Like the IPCC, IPBES helps bring scientists and policymakers together on the issue of biodiversity. Its role is to collect and synthesize the scattered data gathered by experts around the world, in order to bring the issue of biodiversity loss to the forefront. The platform consists of a multidisciplinary group of 23 experts distributed across the five United Nations regions and appointed for a two-year term.
2) WHY IS THE IPBES REPORT SO IMPORTANT?
Just like the IPCC reports, the IPBES reports are eagerly awaited. This year’s report is all the more anticipated because it is the first assessment conducted at the intergovernmental level and the first definitive global synthesis on the state of nature, ecosystems, and nature’s contributions to people since the landmark Millennium Assessment published in 2005.
This document was prepared by 150 international experts in the natural and social sciences from 50 countries, with the support of 250 other experts. It examines the causes of biodiversity loss and changes in ecosystems, their implications for people, and scenarios for a sustainable future by 2050 to inform future policymaking. The report will also provide an overview of the world’s progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
To be completed, this project took three years, $2.4 million, and nearly 15,000 references, including scientific articles and government information. It will be reviewed and approved at the Paris session. A final version will be officially published on Monday, May 6.
3) WHAT DO WE ALREADY KNOW ABOUT THE STATE OF GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY?
“We are sabotaging our own future well-being,” said Robert Watson, chair of IPBES, last year upon the release of four reports on the state of wildlife and a fifth on the state of soils. The platform estimated at the time that fish stocks in the Asia-Pacific region would be depleted within 30 years and that 90 % of its coral reefs could be severely degraded by 2050. In Africa, more than half of the bird and mammal species will be lost by 2100.
Previously, IPBES had warned that the Earth is facing a “mass extinction” of species—the first since the dinosaurs went extinct about 65 million years ago and the sixth in 500 million years. Over the past century, an average of two vertebrate species have gone extinct each year on Earth. “Protecting nature’s invaluable contributions to humankind will be the major challenge of the coming decades. Policies, efforts, and actions—at all levels—will succeed only if they are based on the best available knowledge and data. That is the goal of the IPBES global assessment,” explains Robert Watson.
Novethic
