Friends, esteemed colleagues, and all those who care about the health of our planet:
It is a pleasure to join you today for the OxfordSpeaks Speaker Series as we celebrate the 52nd World Environment Day. Every year on June 5th, we engage hundreds of millions of people around the world, with a planetary call to action. This year, we are grateful to Saudi Arabia for being the global host, with themes of restoration, countering desertification, and building resilience.
Those are timely issues. Currently, 3.2 billion people are impacted by land degradation, and 86 million people are exposed to severe or extreme drought. The World Economic Forum's 2024 Risk Report ranks biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse as the third most significant risk for the next decade. These environmental crises are already causing food prices to soar, productivity to decline, and global insecurity to rise.
Central to any strategy for resilience is tackling the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.
Climate change is already upon us. For the twelfth straight month, the Earth has shattered heat records. We have experienced the five hottest years ever, and 1.1 billion people globally face immediate risk from climate impacts. From 1998 to 2017, 4.5 billion people were affected by natural disasters, 96 per cent of them weather-related.
Our biodiversity is in peril. Extinction rates are at their highest in a thousand years, with one million out of the eight million species facing being wiped out. Three quarters of the world's land is significantly degraded, and 85 per cent of the area of global wetlands have already been lost.
And we are choking on pollution. Air pollution is one of the biggest killers on the planet. Two billion people live without access to waste disposal systems, and by 2025, two-thirds of the world will live under water-stressed conditions.
Addressing the triple planetary crisis is critical to peace and security. Fragile states, with weak institutions and poor governance, will be most affected. Eight out of the 15 countries most susceptible to climate risks are already receiving United Nations peacekeeping or special political missions.
Climate change triggers migration, especially in middle-income and agricultural countries. Changes in temperatures, rainfall variability, and rapid-onset disasters could displace more than 140 million people within their countries by 2050. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, climate change could create 86 million internal migrants, pushing up to 132 million people in developing countries below the poverty line by 2030.
Multilateralism is our only way to solve these interconnected and integrated challenges. Successfully dealing with the triple planetary crisis will require building an international consensus, among a wide and diverse group of stakeholders, on how to deliver a better present and safeguard the future.
The Summit of the Future in New York in September will focus on safeguarding the managing global shocks, ensuring meaningful inclusion of young people, and moving beyond pure economic growth as the only definition of progress. It will also address the transformations needed in education, information integrity, and a new agenda for peace.
Also this year, we have the opportunity to deliver on an ambitious agreement to end plastic pollution. At negotiations in South Korea, we will push for a deal which considers the entire life cycle of plastics, focusing not just on waste, but also examining how products are designed, produced, and distributed. All eyes will be on Busan in November, urging the bold and decisive measures the world needs.
This World Environment Day, we celebrate the beauty, joy and natural treasures of our precious planet – but we also recommit to protecting them and preserving them for generations to come. With innovative thinking, cooperation, and a determination to push for change, we can tackle the triple planetary crisis. And together, we can create a resilient, sustainable, and prosperous future for all.
