Colombia's Environment Minister Warns of Global Heating Risks Ahead of Nature Summit

Colombia's Environment Minister, Susana Muhamad, has issued a stark warning about the dangers of focusing solely on decarbonisation without simultaneously restoring natural ecosystems. As she prepares to preside over the UN biodiversity Cop16 summit in Cali this October, Muhamad emphasized that neglecting the natural world could lead to catastrophic global heating and societal collapse. During a press briefing in Montreal, she articulated the need for a dual approach: a just energy transition alongside robust efforts to restore nature. Muhamad highlighted the importance of raising political awareness regarding biodiversity, asserting that it must be treated with the same urgency as climate change. She stated, “There is a double movement humanity must make,” underscoring the necessity of allowing nature to regain its power to stabilize the climate. Despite the growing recognition of the nature crisis, she noted that biodiversity discussions do not attract the same level of attention as climate meetings, which often see tens of thousands of delegates. Ahead of the summit, Muhamad called on governments from the global north to fulfill their financial commitments to nature restoration. She stressed the importance of mobilizing alternative funding sources from the private sector and urged countries to contribute to the global biodiversity fund established at Cop15 in 2022. This gesture, she argued, would demonstrate a genuine commitment to biodiversity. Under the leadership of President Gustavo Petro, Colombia has emerged as a prominent advocate for environmental action on the international stage, recently joining an alliance for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty at the Cop28 climate summit in Dubai.