Mary Robinson critical of world leaders' failure to attend Cop15

Climate activists take part in a protest demanding climate justice and human rights at the Sharm El-Sheikh International Convention Centre during the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt.  Campaign for Nature has called on world leaders to also attend the Cop15 biodiversity summit in Montreal, Canada. Picture: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters

Former President Mary Robinson is among four former heads of state who have criticised the failure of world leaders to attend a major UN biodiversity summit in Canada next month.

The Campaign for Nature, which is a collaboration between the National Geographic Society and the Wyss Campaign for Nature, has described the Montreal Cop15 event from December 7 to 19 as a pivotal moment for nature and biodiversity.

The campaign has called on world leaders to "protect at least 30% of the planet by 2030" in a bid to stave off even more biodiversity loss.

Up to 1m wild species are facing extinction, many within decades, leaving billions of people who rely on them for food and income exposed as the biodiversity crisis worsens, a report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which was signed off by 193 member countries, revealed earlier this year.

A separate study in one of the world's foremost scientific journals found that almost a third of species are either gone or threatened with extinction in the last 500 years.

Campaign for Nature has called on world leaders to attend the Montreal event, the same as they did at the current Cop27 climate change summit in Egypt.

Ms Robinson, a member of the advisory committee of the Campaign for Nature, joined a range of former presidents, prime ministers, and UN figures in the call.

"Cop15 is the most important global summit for nature this decade. A 10-year Global Biodiversity Framework should be agreed, but negotiations are way off track and there are serious concerns about the capacity of officials to find common ground without a clear indication from the highest level that it is a priority," said a joint statement from the Campaign for Nature advisers.

Having government leaders there is essential to elevate this crisis to the level it deserves with officials, the media, the public, and, importantly, to send a clear signal to investors and shareholders that the world is united in an ambition to end the devastating business as usual."

They said the Cop15 summit should be akin to the Paris Agreement for nature. The 2015 Paris Agreement set the 1.5C temperature increase limit goal that scientists say is necessary to avoid the worst fallout from climate change.

"The Paris Agreement was achieved because, despite great differences between nations, leaders came from every continent, understanding the political significance and importance of finding compromises through decisions that only they can make on very short timelines. As ex-heads of state and ministers and UN leaders, we know how important the leaders' presence can make to these summits," they said.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said climate change and biodiversity are intrinsically linked and must be tackled simultaneously.

Political leaders have not taken the biodiversity crisis seriously enough despite ample warnings from environmental experts, he said in June.

Giving the keynote address at the National Biodiversity Conference in Dublin Castle, Mr Martin said it was a “great mistake of our species to think that we are separate from nature”.

"I do sense a deepening acceptance, a growing realisation, that our fortunes as a species and as a society are inseparable from the fortunes of the natural world,” he said.