In keeping with this year's Mother Earth Day theme "Harmony with Nature and Biodiversity: Ecological economics and Earth-centered law," UN General Assembly (UNGA) President Abdulla Shahid Friday called for a shift to green economies.
"Nature is suffering. Oceans are filling with plastic and turning more acidic; extreme heat, wildfires and floods have affected millions; and we are still facing Covid-19, a worldwide health pandemic linked to the health of our ecosystem," the senior UN official said.
"Science has shown that our continued and careless encroachment into the world's ecosystems" has damaged biodiversity and endangered human health and well-being."
The international community needs to use the tools and targets of the Paris Agreement on climate change and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as blueprints for a sustainable recovery from Covid, Abdulla said.
Climate change, man-made changes to nature as well as crimes that disrupt biodiversity, such as deforestation, land-use change, intensified agriculture and livestock production or the growing illegal wildlife trade, can accelerate the speed of destruction of the planet.
This is the first Mother Earth Day celebrated within the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
Ecosystems support all life on Earth. The healthier the ecosystems are, the healthier the planet and its people will be.
Restoring the damaged ecosystems will help end poverty, combat climate change and prevent mass extinction, says the UN.