The ‘30x30’ Campaign to Save the Biosphere

In my weekly column for World Politics Review, I look at the scientific rationale behind the 30x30 campaign’s objective, the principles that should inform its implementation, and what needs to be done to realize it on a global scale.

Over the past two years, an extraordinary global campaign has emerged to protect 30 percent of Earth’s total surface from human exploitation by 2030. The members of this so-called 30x30 coalition, which now includes scores of governments, understand that climate change is only one half of the planet’s environmental crisis. The Paris Agreement, while imperative to curb greenhouse gas emissions, will do little by itself to save the planet’s collapsing biodiversity or preserve the massive ecosystems upon which humanity depends—and which we are fast degrading.

In April 2019, a group of 19 prominent scientists ignited international interest in the 30x30 proposal when they made it the centerpiece of a proposed “Global Deal for Nature.” The idea quickly took off among governments and within civil society. In September of that year, Costa Rica and several other nations announced they would form a “coalition for nature.” France soon joined this effort, collaborating with Costa Rica to establish a High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, which launched at the One Planet Summit in Paris this past January.

Read the full World Politics Review article here.