#SustyTalk: Ashden’s Stephen Hall on spotlighting solutions for biodiversity COP15

#SustyTalk is all about keeping edie’s loyal readers connected to sustainable business leaders across the world, whilst reminding us all that sustainability and climate action must go on through the current Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. It launched in the early stages of the pandemic in 2020 and has continued since then, keeping us connected to the inspirational business leaders who are continuing to drive sustainability and climate action.

Now, #SustyTalk is evolving from a video format to an audio-only format. This episode sees edie’s senior reporter Sarah George in discussion with Ashden’s head of awards Dr Stephen Hall. This episode has been recorded to coincide with the ongoing negotiations in Montreal, Canada, for the UN’s global biodiversity treaty.

After a round of introductions, Stephen provides his reflections on Ashden’s time at COP27, including the discussions around nature and the whole day in the Presidency Agenda dedicated to solutions.

He also runs over the climate charity’s key asks for negotiators at the UN’s 15th biodiversity COP, which is ongoing in Montreal right now. Attendees are attempting to agree on a global treaty for nature that would halt degradation and bring about restoration at scale, but the process hangs in the balance ahead of the arrival of ministers this weekend.

Ashden is supporting a strong mission statement, in recognition that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to end biodiversity loss. This should be underpinned by time-bound, numerical, science-based targets that nations are held accountable for. Ashden also wants to see a strong agreement on scaling international biodiversity finance from the Global North to locally-led action in the Global South.

Stephen is on hand to spotlight some of these locally-led, innovative solutions from communities most affected by climate change and nature loss – including Indigenous communities. Ashden award-winners include YICE, based in in Uganda, a regenerative agriculture programme which provides training to local people and refugees in organic agriculture techniques.

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Want to be featured on a future episode of #SustyTalk? Email [email protected]. Please bear in mind that our interview calendar is typically booked several weeks in advance.