International Day for Biological Diversity 2024: Statement from the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change

Statement

GATINEAU, QC, May 22, 2024 /CNW/ - The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, issued the following statement today:

"Today, the world celebrates the International Day for Biological Diversity. This year's theme is, "Be Part of the Plan" to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. 

"We Canadians love our natural surroundings, but few of us stop to think about the absolutely vital importance of nature and biodiverse ecosystems to our economic well-being, our health, and our ability to tackle and adapt to climate change. With biodiversity declining faster than ever due to human activity, now is the time for urgent and transformative action to ensure our children, grandchildren, and many generations to come live in a world where people and nature co-exist and thrive.

"In 2022, Canada stepped up to host the 15th United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) and played a key role in leading the world to the Kunming–Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework. This international Framework lays out a plan to safeguard the world's nature, halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, and put nature on a path to recovery by 2050.

"Protecting, conserving, and restoring nature is key to advancing the Global Biodiversity Framework. Backed by over $5 billion in investments, the federal government is in the middle of the largest campaign in Canadian history to conserve nature, with a goal of protecting 30 percent of land and water by 2030 and protecting species at risk.

"This year, to help implement the ambitious Framework, we will introduce a federal nature accountability bill, which would establish an accountability and transparency framework for the federal government's commitments under the Global Biodiversity Framework. The bill would provide concrete steps to implement the commitments at the federal level, including requirements to develop national biodiversity strategies and report on their implementation.

"Based on feedback from all levels of government, Indigenous groups, and stakeholders, Canada is developing its 2030 National Nature Strategy. The Strategy will chart a path for how Canada will implement the Global Biodiversity Framework domestically. It calls on every sector of society to play a role in building solutions to support biodiversity. Canada also launched the Nature Champions Network—an international, ministerial-level group that advocates for the rapid implementation of the Framework and works to ensure that all countries deliver updated domestic biodiversity strategies by COP16 this fall in Colombia.

"Everyone has a role to play in the plan to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. On this International Day for Biological Diversity, let us all reflect on how we can take action and be part of the plan. This is about clean air, clean water, healthy people, and the thriving ecosystems that sustain life on Earth. The time to act is now."

SOURCE Environment and Climate Change Canada

Kaitlin Power, Senior Press Secretary and Communications Advisor, Office of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, 819-230-1557, [email protected]; Media Relations, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 819-938-3338 or 1-844-836-7799 (toll-free), [email protected]