3rd November 2025
With COP30 a week away, what are the system changes we need to protect the Earth’s planetary boundaries?
Biodiversity integrity – life forms in all their variety are key to our wellbeing and survival. We re reliant on functioning ecosystems for clean air and water, for food and medicines, for clothing and shelter. And functioning ecosystems depend on there being both a diversity of and a sufficient number of, plants, animals, insects, bacteria etc. For example, without fungi and earth worms, plant roots, decaying leaves etc the fertility of the soil will be depleted and food supplies diminished.
We humans, through both excessive use of some resources and through a failure to conserve others, have so diminished the integrity of the Earth’s biodiversity framework, that it is now in the danger zone: that planetary boundary has been exceeded. It is something that has been apparent for years, and in 2022 the nations of the world drew up the Kunming-Montreal biodiversity framework outlining how the Earth’s biodiversity could be restored. From this agreement came the undertaking that nations would by 2030 restore and protect the biodiversity of 30% of the land and of the seas in their control.(1) This is an ambitious target given how reluctant people and organisations are to change the way they live and do business. It is an issue that needs to be kept at the top of the agenda for all international and national decision makers. In a recent blog, it was noted that the “the impact of biodiversity risks to the UK economy and financial institutions are equal or greater than climate risks.” (2)
(2) https://blog.actuaries.org.uk/2025/9/nature-at-risk-models-at-fault-why-biodiversity-cant-wait/
Further info on the importance of biodiversity – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-60823267
The Green Tau 