Global Scans · Life on Land · Weekly Summary

In September 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development. If these Goals are completed, it would mean an end to extreme poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030.
Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss,

• [New] The UN declared 2021-2030 as the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, aiming to restore 350 million hectares of degraded land, generating $9 trillion in ecosystem services and sequestering 13-26 gigatons of greenhouse gases. BYJU'S
• [New] Through the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free products, the EU will ensure that the products that EU citizens buy, use and consume do not contribute to deforestation and forest degradation in the EU and globally. EU Science Hub
• [New] Financial authorities including central banks and finance ministries are at varying stages of evaluating the relevance of biodiversity loss and other nature-related risks as a financial risk. ThePrint
• [New] Regulators who have assessed nature-related risks found that biodiversity and nature loss could result in credit losses, defaults and abrupt price corrections that pose financial risks to banks and other institutions. ThePrint
• [New] The Nature Regulation aims to restore at least 20% of the EU's land and sea areas by 2030 and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. JD Supra
• [New] According to estimates from the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, large, dense, high-income cities, such as New York or London, would need 85 to 100 takeoff and landing pads, which could be distributed among 20 to 30 vertiports. Orange County Register
• [New] Adopting an ecosystem - and regularly optimizing that ecosystem - with a mix of colocation, private cloud and public cloud capabilities is a trend that likely will continue to remain dominant in the coming years. Yahoo Finance
• [New] Agriculture's global greenhouse gas emissions intensity is expected to decline, as growth will be based on productivity improvements rather than cultivated land and livestock herd expansions, although direct emissions from agriculture will still increase by 5%. ReliefWeb
• [New] Over the next five years, games like Hamster Kombat could greatly improve user participation, drive mass adoption of blockchain technology, and catalyze growth within the ecosystem. Cryptotvplus
• [New] Unilever globally has a goal of implementing Regenerative Agriculture practices on 1 million hectares of agricultural land by 2030. Unilever PLC
• [New] Climate change models forecast an increase in global temperatures and disruption of precipitation patterns, which pose various challenges to ecosystems at regional scales. Nature
• [New] Planting energy crops on existing agricultural land in places like China and Central Europe could minimise harm to biodiversity compared to planting them elsewhere. ScienceDaily
• [New] The fact that Indonesia has so much land that is idle today means that it could - if managed properly - increase agricultural outputs, for various commodities without clearing more forest. The Washington Post
• A new study confirms widespread doubts about the potential for most forests in the Western US to help curb climate change. ScienceDaily
• With vast areas of uncultivated arable land and the youngest population in the world, Africa has the potential to feed not only its own continent but much of the world. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• The Council of the European Union formally adopted a nature restoration law that aims to restore 30% of the EU's land and sea by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. Sullivan and Cromwell LLC
• Freshwater fauna are among the most threatened taxa worldwide owing to human-related disturbances including changes in land use, introduction of exotic species, and climate change 1, 2, 3. Nature
• Freshwater fishes are among the most threatened taxa worldwide owing to changes in land use, species introductions, and climate change. Nature
• Global climate change is a major threat to biodiversity and has been proposed to profoundly affect species distribution, genetic diversity, behaviour, and fitness 1, 2. Nature
• The harm to biodiversity could be minimised in places like Central Europe and the east coasts of the USA and China. ScienceDaily
• Variations in rainfall patterns, including drizzle and fog, have decreased in parts of the tropics in recent decades and are expected to continue and increase because of forest loss and global climate change. BioMed Central

Last updated: 21 July 2024