The President of the seventy-sixth Session of the General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Abdulla Shahid, addressed the Knowledge Dialogue on Building Resilience: Nature’s critical role in recovery from COVID-19, conserving biodiversity and tackling climate change co-organised by the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
In his statement, the President noted that the ongoing pandemic underscores the consequences of not respecting nature and her boundaries. He stressed the necessity to take urgent action to ensure that our social, economic, and financial systems are climate-sustainable and in harmony with the earth’s ecosystems. For this purpose, he requested the distinguished scientists and experts to outline the challenges we face in our conservation efforts, and how best to align them with our ongoing efforts to overcome the pandemic and solve climate change.
The President pledged he would help galvanize concerted action on each of these fronts – an ongoing pandemic, climate change, and a global loss in biodiversity, through his proposed super session on environment to be held mid-2022 during the 76th Session and called for making full use of the power of young people.
23 September 2021
