G20 ECSWG meet in South Africa discusses environmental crime, land degradation

Johannesburg | Environmental crime and land degradation were among key issues discussed at the G20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group (ECSWG) meeting held in South Africa.

The meeting on Monday at Skukuza, the largest rest camp and administrative headquarters of the iconic Kruger National Park, is part of a series of events being hosted by South Africa, which holds the G20 Presidency this year, ahead of the G20 Summit of Heads of State scheduled for November.

“Poverty, unemployment, hunger, inequality, environmental degradation, and climate change are but a few of the formidable and interconnected issues facing the world today,” Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries, and Environment Narend Singh said.

“We are less than five years away from our deadline to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the end of this critical decade for climate action. Yet we are still far from attaining these goals and action targets," he said.

Poverty levels are worsening, pollution from hazardous chemicals has been increasing, and greenhouse gas emissions reached record highs last year, Singh said, as he called for an urgent acceleration of efforts by the G20 countries, since they were all negatively affected.

Singh said the complexity of these issues and their fundamental interdependency, as well as the increasingly global nature of market, finance, trade, and technology frameworks, required enhanced reforms, inclusivity, cooperation, and collective action amongst the nations against the backdrop and within the context of rapidly changing geopolitics.

The minister said the five priorities identified at the inaugural ECSWG meeting in March have now been extended to six, after the climate change and air quality priorities were made separate priorities.

“During this meeting, we will present the draft technical papers under each of the six priorities and envisaged outcomes as well as the deliverables of the G20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group in more detail,” Singh said as he expanded on the six priorities.

The first priority area, biodiversity and conservation, focuses on sharing experiences on the national biodiversity strategies and action plans and their role in effectively realising the aspirations and ambitions of the global biodiversity framework.

“The G20 can play a crucial part in halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030, aiming for a ‘nature-positive world' for the benefit of people and the planet,” he said.

“We have also recognised the importance of addressing the issue of environmental crime within the G20. In many countries endowed with large forests and rich biodiversity as well as other natural resources, the risks of illegal logging, illicit mining, poaching, and wildlife trafficking are threatening the achievement of environmental, economic, and social developmental imperatives.

"It is therefore important that, as the G20, we send a strong and clear message in this regard,” the minister said.

Singh cited the second priority area as land degradation, desertification, and drought, including water sustainability.

“It is recognised that achieving land degradation neutrality requires three concurrent actions, namely, avoiding new degradation of land by maintaining existing healthy land; reducing existing degradation by adopting sustainable land management and regenerative practices, focusing on integrated water resource management, while increasing biodiversity, soil health, and food production; and scaling up efforts to restore and return degraded lands to a natural or more productive state,” he said.

Another priority area is focusing on chemicals and waste management, which includes the sub-priority of sustainable chemicals management.

“The G20 can notably support the development of a legally binding international treaty to combat plastic pollution, as agreed at the United Nations Environment Assembly in 2022,” Singh said.

The fourth priority area is climate change, with a focus on the just transitions beyond the scope of the energy transition, adaptation and resilience, and loss and damage.

And now this priority also includes a sub-priority on mitigation within the context of low-carbon economic development and other co-benefits beyond the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

“As a primary outcome of our G20 presidency this year, South Africa will explore ways that the G20 can leverage opportunities to increase the scale and flows of climate finance," Singh said.

The fifth priority area is dedicated to air quality, while the final priority is on oceans and coasts, which focuses on the importance of marine spatial planning as being vital to protect people and critical infrastructure from a climate change-driven increase in extreme weather events.