– As delivered –

Statement by H.E. Volkan Bozkir, President of the 75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly

30 September 2020

Excellencies,

My profound thanks to you for your participation, engagement and guidance at this historic Summit.

The initiatives and commitments we have heard today will help lay the foundation for COP15 in Kunming.

Biodiversity protection will require transformational changes in our economies and societies. It will be difficult. But it is far from impossible.

Humankind is capable of incredible feats of science and engineering, of deep compassion and consideration. The key messages from today’s dialogues have reminded me of that, and have given me hope.

First, Despite the severe hardships it has imposed, COVID-19 presents us with a unique opportunity for a ‘green reset’.

As many as 1.2 billion jobs rely directly on ecosystems and the services they provide. The international community can protect and expand upon these livelihoods, and both protect biodiversity and boost economic growth, through a green recovery.

Doing so, however, will require efforts to mobilize public and private financing to support socio-economic recovery that embraces nature-based solutions and disaster risk reduction.

Second, without a transformative approach to food production and distribution, we risk damaging biodiversity and in turn limiting our own food security.

I need not remind you that biodiversity loss undermines global efforts to tackle poverty and hunger – no biodiversity means no food security.

Addressing unsustainable agriculture thus constitutes an ‘SDG accelerator’, supporting both biodiversity and climate action. It is therefore important to take forward the initiatives and gains from this summit to the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit.

In this, and in everything we do to protect nature, we must learn from indigenous peoples. We must use education, science and local and indigenous knowledge to restore the relationship between people and the natural world, and restore degraded ecosystems on land and at sea. The upcoming Second UN Ocean Conference will be another pivotal moment to galvanize action in this regard. 

Biodiversity protection will require transformational changes in our economies and societies. It will be difficult. But it is far from impossible.

Humankind is capable of incredible feats of science and engineering, of deep compassion and consideration. The key messages from today’s dialogues have reminded me of that, and have given me hope.

Volkan Bozkir

President of the UN General Assembly

Third, we must undertake whole-of-society responses to protecting biodiversity.

This means engaging all stakeholders, through intergenerational coalitions and youth leadership, and mainstreaming sustainability into business models.

Voluntary action is not enough. Today we heard corporations and leaders in the business community call for political will and leadership in creating pro-nature laws and regulations. As was rightly said, biodiversity is vital to all of our lives. Nature – both on land and in the sea – is everybody’s business.

And finally, we need action at all levels, in particular in the urban context. Today, cities will play a critical role in reviving and healing biodiversity. In this regard, I welcome the Edinburgh Declaration for subnational governments, cities and local authorities in support of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. This sets a strong example.

Excellencies, I would like to thank the world leaders who endorsed the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature to Reverse Biodiversity Loss by 2030, and reiterate my call on all leaders to make equally ambitious commitments.

As the UN celebrates its 75th anniversary, it is encouraging to see multilateralism continue to deliver the needs of the people for whom we serve.

Let us work now with unwavering conviction so that our efforts, today and throughout this process, will be remembered 75 years from now.

We are all in this together. Let us get to work!

Thank you.