Eight million threatened

Simon Marsh  |  Features  |  earth watch
Date posted:  1 Nov 2022
Share Add       
Eight million threatened

Sharm El Sheikh with the Sinai mountains in the background | photo: iStock

What do Glasgow, Sharm El Sheikh, Kunming, and Montreal have in common? Shipbuilding cities? Exotic holiday destinations? Which is the odd one out, and why do they matter to the future of the planet?

You may remember the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow last year. The follow-up conference will be taking place shortly in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh where there will be an assessment of whether countries are doing enough to tackle climate change (almost certainly not, according to the independent think tank Chatham House).

But I want to draw attention to a less-well known but no less critical strand of international diplomacy, the Convention on Biological Diversity, which also originated at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and whose latest meeting was due to take place in Kunming, China in 2020. The Covid pandemic put paid to that and after repeated postponements the meeting is now taking place in Montreal this December. Kunming is therefore the odd one out as it’s the UN conference that didn’t happen, but in compensation China still gets to chair the meeting.

Share
< Previous article| Features| Next article >
Read more articles on:   environment
Read more articles by Simon Marsh >>
Features
Special places?

Special places?

Recently my church has been studying the opening chapters of Genesis, and although the focus was on male and female …

Features
Are we doomed?

Are we doomed?

‘We’re doomed’, a catchphrase familiar to viewers of Dad’s Army, might have been Private Frazer’s reaction to the recent …

About en

Our vision, values and history.

Read more

Give a subscription

🎁 Get 20% off a subscription for a friend this Christmas!

Tell me more