France to fight biodiversity loss
May 7, 2019
French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday his government would step up its efforts to protect biodiversity after he met scientists who warned that increasing biodiversity loss was as big a threat to humans as climate change.
"What is at stake is the very possibility of having a habitable Earth," Macron said after the meeting of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in Paris.
Read more: Fighting to save Africa’s biodiversity
What is Macron planning?
- Reducing food waste in schools, restaurants and retailers.
- Changing food production methods to reduce the use of pesticide by 50% by 2025.
- Increasing the share of protected marine and land areas to 30% by 2022.
- Rehabilitating agricultural land that has been damaged by chemical processes.
- Curbing overall levels of trash and plastic waste.
In a report released earlier on Monday, the IPBES said the work of some 450 experts showed that around a million species were at risk of extinction, a prospect that would "undermine our ability for poverty reduction, food and water security, human health and the overall goal of leaving nobody behind."
Read more: WWF highlights drastic drop in German insect population
Macron said he would present a climate initiative at a meeting of European Union leaders this week in Romania.
"We are in the process of forming an alliance on this issue," Macron said.
amp/aw (AFP, Reuters, dpa)
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