WHAT''S NEXT?: Oceans, animals, and land are all under threat from climate change and human activities. The effective and efficient conservation of agricultural biodiversity is vital to meeting the global challenges of food and nutritional security for an expanding world population. But, the signs are of continued degradation of our global natural resources and environment.

• [New] SpaceX has launched so many satellites in the last year, and plans to launch thousands more as it builds out a constellation of beacons in low-Earth orbit to provide global Internet service from space, has understandably raised concerns among astronomers.
• In 2020 and 2021, governments have a unique opportunity to forge international agreements to reverse nature loss, like the 2015 Paris Agreement did for climate change.
• Government policies should immediately call for bans on non-essential plastic packaging rather than working to a target of eliminating avoidable plastic waste by the end of 2042 as the UK's 25 year environmental plan currently indicates.
• With the United Nations planning a 2021 launch of its scheme - known as CORSIA - some EU lawmakers and environmental groups want assurances that the European Commission will not remove aviation from the EU emissions trading system.
• China will be landing on the moon this year in a purely robotic remote control mission to bring samples back to earth.
• The UK could accept non-regression clauses - a commitment not to reduce the levels of protection when the UK exits transition at the end of the year - on environmental and social issues.
• Delivering 90% clean electricity in the US by 2035 avoids an estimated $1.2 trillion in environmental and health costs through 2050, by reducing air pollution and the impact of carbon emissions.
• Friends of the Earth Europe and Heinrich-Boll-Stiftung are now calling for a new law to cut pesticide use by 80% by 2030, as well as other measures to prepare the way towards fairer and greener food systems.
• This year there is a focus on calling for world leaders to commit to protecting 30% of oceans by 2030, to combat the climate crisis and protect marine biodiversity.
• UK nature and conservation charities have already expressed concern that the Government's £750m aid package for charities will not be enough to stop the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak from stifling efforts to tackle climate change and protect nature over the coming years.
• Musk has audacious plans to grow his constellation to as many as 12,000 by 2027 - which is almost six times the number of all operational spacecraft orbiting Earth.
• The Great Barrier Reef is worth an estimated $4 billion a year in tourism revenue for the Australian economy but is at risk of losing its coveted world heritage status because warmer oceans brought about by climate change have damaged its health.
• Cell-based meats will account for 35% of total global meat consumption in just two decades, with a 41% annual growth rate between 2025 and 2040, while conventional meat sources from animal farming will experience sharp declines and represent just 40% of total meat consumption by 2040.
• A permanent shift in the nature of travel, with business travel projected to be permanently suppressed and with flight volumes that return to pre-crisis levels at a slower rate than in other recent pandemics.
• More than 500 land mammal species are on the brink of extinction and likely to be lost over the next 20 years, according to scientists who have warned that the sixth mass extinction of wildlife on Earth is accelerating, and may herald the collapse of human civilisation.
• The European Commission has set a number of new environmental targets, including the reduction of pesticide usage by 50% and the goal of 25% of EU farmland being organic by 2030.
• The Newfoundland and Labrador government shares the federal government's goals of environmental protection and reducing carbon emissions, including for the oil and gas sector, and has committed to achieving net zero by 2050.
• The European Commission has adopted the new EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and an associated Action Plan - a comprehensive, ambitious, long-term plan for protecting nature and reversing the degradation of ecosystems.
• In line with the slower economy, China will raise defence spending by 6.6% this year, the slowest in three decades, while the budget for environmental protection will increase a modest 4%.
• For the EU to meet its environmental objectives, the European Commission recently estimated the funding gap to be around EUR 400 billion a year up to 2030 - including 260 billion for climate and 100-150 billion for other environmental objectives such as biodiversity conservation and restoration.
• 96% of the world's population will be susceptible to a DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) deficiency by the year 2100 owing to climate change and overfishing of the oceans.
• Industrial animal farming has caused most new infectious diseases in humans in the past decade - and risks starting new pandemics as animal markets have done.
• In line with the ongoing negotiations on a new global deal for nature at the postponed CBD COP15, the EU Strategy commits to increase the EU's protected area network to represent 30% of both land and sea by 2030.

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Last updated: 04 July 2020