Climate change and biodiversity loss

in 2006

the scientist stephen hawking was

concerned about the future of

humanity he posed a question on the web

with the world facing political

economical environmental and

socio-economic crisis how can the human

race

sustain another 100 years many replies

then he replied as well he didn’t know

the answer

he just wanted to make the people

concerned about this challenge as he was

today we are facing two global

challenges

climate change and the biodiversity

loss and ecosystem degradation

even a small change in climate system

can have a strong effect on our

ecosystem

my generation has failed to respond

properly

to this global challenge this is felt

deeply from the young people

no wonder they are angry they’ve been

sending strong message to the policy

maker

act now stop the climate emergencies

save the planet save our future

as a scientist as a citizen

and the father i’m deeply concerned

about this

years ago i founded with some other

friends

the italian climate network it is a a

non-profit organization of young people

to address the climate problem

climate change is a global challenge

it’s an emergency we need to listen to

the science

already the global scientific community

involving climate science

warned us about the climate emergency

we’re facing

the world is heating up the global

surface temperature

in the last decade are about one degree

warmer than the pre-industrial level

the and europe what about europe europe

climate is not doing well the european

land temperature

have increased faster than the global

ones in the same period

of about almost 2 degrees centigrade

the global fossil fuel

co2 emission have increased steadily in

the last decade

they show no sign of peaks the global

co2 emission in 2019 the last year

are about 60 percent higher than 1990.

climate change in europe what does it

mean a stronger climate change

means stronger source economic impacts

in europe

we can have more intense heatwaves

eating europe

we can face a drop in crop production

south europe will be the first one to

feel the most of this damage

about climate change we should keep in

mind some important numbers

3.2 degrees 56 gigatons by 2030

with the present policy commitment in

the paris agreement

the global temperature most likely will

reach 3.2 degrees

this century with these commitments

in the paris agreement the global

emission

will reach 56 gigatons

of co2 by 2030

1.5 degrees 25 gigatons

7.6

the objective of the paris agreement is

to keep the increase

of the global temperature well below 2

degrees

comparing with pre-industrial level and

to make

effort to limit this increase to 1.5

degrees

to do this science tell us something

we must drop the global co2 emission

rapidly

to reach 25 gigatonnes of co2

by 2030. the 7.6

this last number is our global solution

to do this

we must reduce our global emission

of 7.6 percent every year from now

up to 20 30.

nature and biodiversity sustain life on

earth

the biodiversity loss and the

degradation of ecosystem

can have fundamental consequence

on our society the economy the human

health and the well-being

europe is facing a dramatic degradation

of ecosystem

and the rapid loss of biodiversity

we are facing a decline in population

of common birds and butterflies balls

and butterflies

are sensitive to the environmental

change in the ecosystem in europe

butterflies are also a good proxy for

all pollinators these trends in

population can be

strong indicators of the health of the

ecosystem in europe

so we have these two challenge climate

change

and biodiversity laws we need to address

this challenge together not in a

separate way

if we fail in one we fail in both

the window for action is closing if we

want to avoid

avoid the reversible change in the

climate and in the ecosystem

what we learn from the covet 19 crisis

we know very clear the damage we

produced to nature

in the past we learn that we need to

listen to science

we learn we need to invest more in risk

prevention

and resilience

what next we have the opportunity to set

a new course

in 2021 all the governments

the private sector the civil society

the local authorities the international

organization

must develop and adopt global solutions

more ambition to address these two

global challenges

we need to think better

sustainability should be our guiding

principle

we must think differently we need to

transform

our economy we need to foster

technology through the society we need

to build opportunities

to go to a transitional to transition to

ecological

uh to ecological transition

europe european union has a new ambition

for a healthy planet europe

has developed a new transformative

policy framework

this framework is the european green

deal

the objective is to have by 2050

a climate neutral and resilient europe

it is a road map it means change in

european policy

plans and action new strategy

new plans new action for bio

diversity for climate change for

pollution

for industrial development for many

socio-economic sectors of the european

society

natural based solution and green

infrastructure

are among the solution to make this

european green deal

real they work with nature

they preserve the nature and they fight

climate change

they fight climate change through

climate change adaptation and mitigation

they also provide multiple benefits

ecological

source economic benefits the

natural-based solution benefit

the biodiversity and they support the

delivery

of many ecosystem services

so today i present you

evidence of these two global challenges

the challenge of climate change and the

challenge of biodiversity loss

i show you some european solution

which will take place in the next years

let me remind you something the planet

earth

is not ours we are only

the guardians of this planet

it was delivered to us in a certain

state

we have a duty we have a responsibility

to deliver to the future generation in a

good quality

the future generation must not pay

for our mistake and our ambition

today we have all the knowledge

let us share it with you let’s fight

climate change

let’s preserve and foster biodiversity

let’s reverse the countdown

we can do it all together thank you

[Applause]