Weekly News: our selection of weekly analysis on biodiversity, natural capital and climate change

Every week, Policy Shift will share a selection of recent articles and publications focused on public policy and innovation. This week's theme deals with natural capital, environmental protection and climate change.

This year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos had a strong focus on climate and the environment, with corporate initiatives and commitments to achieve carbon neutrality on the table. “All companies coming to Davos have been asked to commit to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 or earlier.”

From the China Dialogue, “Global biodiversity talks in China this year will highlight nature-based solutions that could meet one-third of the Paris Agreement climate goal by 2030.”. “China is seeking to build support for NBS as it hosts crunch talks to protect biodiversity, known as COP15, in Kunming later this year. The first draft of a new set of 20 conservation goals, to replace the unmet Aichi targets, was released on January 12 and notes: “Biodiversity, and the benefits it provides, is fundamental to human well-being and a healthy planet.”

The Third Pole provides us with 5 takeaways from the UN’s proposals to protect biodiversity: areas protected for nature should be increased; implementation must significantly improve; a boost in finance is critical; indirect drivers need accounting for and Climate; and biodiversity need tackling together. “The issue of biodiversity loss has gained ground in the past ten months, since the publication of the landmark report by scientists on the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, which stated that one million species were facing extinction.”

Equal Times states that “Brussels wants to convince the rest of the world that green industrial transition is possible. To do this, its leaders are using dramatic language that seeks to resonate. Von der Leyen, for example, has called the Green Deal “Europe’s man on the moon moment”. Check out more from this article entitled “Can the European Union lead the world’s ecological transition?”