Scottish Environment LINK welcomes the debate on Earth Hour on the 28th March 2018 and urges all Species Champion MSPs to use this opportunity to stand up for their species and call for action to address climate change impacts on biodiversity in Scotland. As highlighted by WWF’s Earth Hour, nearly 1 in 6 species are at risk of extinction from climate change.
Almost 10 years since the adoption for the Scottish Climate Change Act, the urgency to tackle climate change has only heightened. Climate change has a profound impact on our environment, health and wellbeing. Ambitious targets must be set and realised in the next few decades if we are to meet Paris Agreement goals and avoid dangerous levels of climate change. There is no question that we need to transition rapidly to a low carbon and sustainable society.
But ambitious targets for eliminating harmful greenhouse gases are not enough. Action to halt biodiversity loss and enhance our environment is needed just as much.
On Monday 26 March, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), described as the “IPCC for biodiversity”, released the results of the most comprehensive biodiversity study in more than a decade, written by more than 500 experts from over 100 countries. It concluded that such is the rate of decline that the risks posed by biodiversity loss should be considered on the same scale as those of climate change.
Human destruction of nature is rapidly eroding the world’s capacity to provide food, water and security to billions of people. This alarming trend endangers economies, livelihoods, food security and the quality of life of people everywhere.
Read the full briefing here
