Biodiversity 'fundamental' to economics
9 March 2007, Berlin, Germany. Germany has put biodiversity, alongside climate change, at the top the agenda for its G8 presidency. In an opinion piece for the BBC, Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel argues that failure to address the loss of species will make the world a poorer place – both naturally and economically.
At the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in 2002, the heads of state and government agreed to significantly reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010.
With time against us, the G8 nations are under a particular obligation. With their production and consumption patterns, they are accountable for a vast majority of pressures and threats.
They are also the countries with the greatest economic power and as the largest consumers of biological resources in terms of per capita consumption.
The environment ministers of the G8+5 process meet this week in Potsdam to discuss ways and means to enhance global biodiversity policies. The participating countries will agree on common initiatives and find concrete areas of enhanced co-operation in order to meet the 2010 target. In addition, the meeting will send a clear signal to June’s G8 summit of heads of state and government on the crucial importance of biodiversity for the global economy and the need to integrate biodiversity into all relevant policy sectors.
- BBC Green Room: Biodiversity ‘fundamental’ to economics
Ahmed Djoghlaf, head of the Convention on Biological Diversity, has written a second opinion piece for the BBC.
- BBC Green Room: It’s not just about climate
