Scotland’s ambition to protect 30% of Scotland for nature by 2030 is in line with a pledge by a coalition of more than 50 countries (including the UK) to protect almost a third of the planet by 2030 to halt the destruction of the natural world and slow extinctions of wildlife.
The High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People made the pledge at the One Planet summit in Paris on 11th January 2021, hosted by the French president, Emmanuel Macron. The commitment is likely to be the headline target of the “Paris agreement for nature” that will be negotiated at the Cop15 Biodiversity Summit in Kunming, China later this year.
Although the One Planet summit also saw pledges to invest billions of pounds in the Great Green Wall in Africa and the launch of a new sustainable finance charter called the Terra Carta by Prince Charles there is scepticism that countries will deliver on the pledge as, in the last 10 years, the world has failed to meet a single target to stem the destruction of wildlife and life-sustaining ecosystems.
Greta Thunberg tweeted: “LIVE from #OnePlanetSummit in Paris: Bla bla nature Bla bla important Bla bla ambitious Bla bla green investments…”