Action taken as climate and biodiversity threats mount

A worker clears debris in front of a building destroyed in Laach, Germany, in July after heavy rain and flooding caused major damage. Will Steffen, a spokesman for the Climate Council in Australia and an expert on climate change, said cold air is usually held in check by the jet stream－a narrow variable band of extremely strong predominantly westerly air currents encircling the globe at an altitude of several kilometers. Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, said:"Climate change and biodiversity loss have sounded the alarm for humankind and forced us to think deeply about the relationship between man and nature." The Kunming Declaration was adopted on Oct 13, committing parties to the convention to ensuring the development, adoption and implementation of an effective post-2020 global framework to reverse biodiversity loss and ensure that biodiversity is put on the road to recovery by 2030 at the latest. "Adoption of the Kunming Declaration, and the strong political direction provided by many ministers, has put us firmly on the path to the adoption of an effective post-2020 global biodiversity framework that will engage the entire world in the task of putting nature on a path to recovery by 2030."