What is the triple planetary crisis?

The triple planetary crisis refers to the three main interlinked issues that humanity currently faces: climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. Each of these issues has its own causes and effects and each issue needs to be resolved if we are to have a viable future on this planet.

Climate change is the most pressing issue facing humanity today. Simply put, climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns that in the long run will completely alter the ecosystems that support life on the planet. Human activities are the main drivers of climate change. Almost everything we do releases emissions, but energy use, industry, transport, buildings and agriculture are the main causes for release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The consequences of climate change already today manifest through increased intensity and severity of  droughts, water scarcity, wildfires, rising sea levels, flooding, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms and declining biodiversity.

Air Pollution is the largest cause of disease and premature death in the world, with more than seven million people dying prematurely each year due to pollution. Incredibly, nine out of ten people worldwide breathe air that contains levels of pollutants that exceed WHO guidelines. Pollution is caused by everything from traffic and factories to wildfires, volcanoes and mould. Another cause of pollution is indoor household air pollution from cooking with polluting fuels and technologies which caused an estimated 3.8 million deaths in 2016 alone.

Source: who.int

Biodiversity loss refers to the decline or disappearance of biological diversity, which includes animals, plants and ecosystems. The reasons for biodiversity loss include everything from overfishing to habitat loss (e.g. deforestation to make way for development) to desertification due to climate change. Biodiversity is the baseline for everything on the planet – as in the end we are all interlinked. Biodiversity loss impacts food supplies and access to clean water – without it we have no future on our planet.

“Humanity is waging war on nature. This is senseless and suicidal,” Secretary-General António Guterres said in the foreword of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Making Peace With Nature report, published last year. “The consequences of our recklessness are already apparent in human suffering, towering economic losses and the accelerating erosion of life on Earth". 

These consequences range from deaths due to weather-related disasters (of which there has been a five-fold increase in the past 50 years) to the 21.5 million people displaced by climate-change related disasters every year. It also means more extreme and more frequent floods, droughts and storms, which not only means a huge human cost, but a huge environmental and financial cost as well. A 2021 report from Swiss Re, one of the largest providers of insurance to other insurance companies, revealed that climate change could cut the value of the world economy by $23 trillion by 2050 – with developed nations such as the US, Canada and France losing between six and ten per cent of their potential economic output. For developing nations, the effects of climate change are even more dire, with Malaysia and Thailand, for example, both seeing their economic growth 20 per cent below what would otherwise be expected by 2050.

What is being done to tackle it?

The good news is that a lot is being done. There are UN agencies dedicated to each of the planetary crises: UN Climate Change (that’s us!) tackles climate change; UN Environment tackles pollution and UN Biodiversity focuses on, you guessed it, biodiversity. The UN Convention to Combat Desertification focuses on land and mitigating the effects of drought. So, what exactly do these bodies do?

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, commonly known as UN Climate Change) was signed in 1992 in order to combat “dangerous human interference with the climate system.” UNFCCC is the United Nations entity tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change. Its secretariate (UN climate Change)  supports a range of bodies that that serve to advance the implementation of the Convention, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. UN Climate Change also supports non-Party stakeholders (i.e. everyone from companies to NGOs) through a variety of programmes and campaigns such as Marrakech Partnership, Race to Zero, the Fashion Charter for Climate Action, Sports for Climate Action and Climate Neutral Now.

Set up in 1972, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, known as UN Environment) is the global authority on the environment, that sets the environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system. It focuses on everything from disasters to the green economy and biosafety.

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD or UN Biodiversity) is a legal framework set up to protect biodiversity. It entered into force in 1993 and has been signed by 196 nations. It’s three main aims are the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of biodiversity and the fair sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources. 

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is a Convention to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought , which was  adopted 1994 and entered into force in December 1996. It counts 197 Parties, making it near universal in reach. As a global voice for Land, UNCCD looks at how land affects climate change, food security and agriculture and biodiversity.

UNFCCC collaborates with other UN entities to help ensure coordinated and efficient support to countries and stakeholders as they take climate action.

To give one example of inter-agency coordination, last year UNFCCC, UNEP and CBD worked with a range of other UN agencies to examine solutions to the triple planetary crisis; to give UN resident coordinators and UN country teams the tools to help governments address all aspects of the crisis. This type of work is vital to ensure that countries translate their commitments into national actions.

Another key UN report is the Frontier Report series, which showcases research into emerging issues of environmental concern, particularly focusing on issues which have not yet emerged into the mainstream. While UNEP authors these reports, the issues raised are also tackled by UNFCCC, CBD and non-party stakeholders.

What can I do about it?

There are many things you can do on an individual basis: consume less; walk or cycle instead of driving; recycle; use less water, and perhaps most importantly contact your elected representatives. Ask them what they are doing to combat the triple planetary crisis – tell them it is important to you and your peers. For more idea, explore the UN’s Act Now site.