23
Nov
2022
Watch
A post-2020 Global biodiversity framework and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 (debate)
Mr President, at COP15 in Montreal we will hopefully come up with a global agreement to effectively protect at least 30% of global land and oceans. Some people find this a bit too much. How can we ever allow nature to thrive in 30% of the planet? Well, there’s a simple answer: it’s called de-growth. Economic growth contributes to biodiversity loss, but doesn’t necessarily contribute to our well-being. If we got smart about it, we’d be able to drastically reduce resource use and lift a massive amount of pressure off the planet. De-growth is nothing to be scared of unless you’re a billionaire capitalist engaged in an economic activity that has no social benefit. It’s about de-scaling unnecessary production and consumption in a way that actually increases our well-being and enhances ecological conditions. In such an unequal world, surely this is something that we should all want. Capitalism is based on perpetual growth, and capitalism has done untold damage to the planet. How long more before we realise that we cannot fix the climate crisis with capitalism?