UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his speech at the Summit on Biodiversity on Wednesday that none of the biodiversity targets, agreed by member states in 2010 to be reached by this year, have been achieved
UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th September, 2020) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his speech at the Summit on Biodiversity on Wednesday that none of the biodiversity targets, agreed by member states in 2010 to be reached by this year, have been achieved.
"Ten years ago, we secured commitments that should have protected our planet. We have largely failed," Guterres said. "Despite repeated commitments, our efforts have not been sufficient to meet any of the global biodiversity targets set for 2020."
Guterres was referring to the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets agreed by countries in 2010 to be reached by 2020 to address the causes of biodiversity loss, promote sustainability, safeguard ecosystems and advance implementation of relevant strategies.
The UN chief warned that one of the consequences of the current imbalance between people and nature is the emergence of deadly diseases, such as the novel coronavirus outbreak.
"75 percent of new infectious diseases are zoonotic, passing from animals to humans, demonstrating the intimate interconnection between the health of our planet and our own," Guterres said.
The global novel coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11. To date, more than 33.7 million people have been infected with the novel coronavirus worldwide, with over 1 million fatalities and 25 million people who have overcome the disease, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
