I was just reading a fact sheet on the contributions that Aichi (Japan) Biodiversity Targets can make to land-based climate mitigation. My son Ivan Wei brought it back from COP21 – the Paris climate talks that happened in December 2015. It brought out some quite interesting points:
- Old growth forests provide better greenhouse gas mitigation than newly planted ones. Meaning, let’s take care of our trees.
- Organic, eco-friendly agriculture is a great way to sequester carbon and get it out of the air, where it causes climate change.
- 1/3 of food is being lost to spoilage and waste. By sharply reducing food waste, we will reduce the amount of new cropland that gets planted, which will in turn dramatically mitigate climate change.
- We need to manage livestock growing much better and probably reduce our meat consumption.
The facts are pulled from the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, a multi-country 10 year framework adopted by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Here’s the full Aichi Targets & Biodiversity Plan Synopsis.