(Cali) The Secretary General of the United Nations called on Wednesday to “make peace between us” to also save nature, making the link, from Cali to Colombia, between the biodiversity issue that is taking place there and the wars in Ukraine, the Middle East and Sudan.

“We need to make peace with nature and peace with each other,” Antonio Guterres told journalists as the 196 countries of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) struggle to agree on how to stop the destruction of nature that threatens humanity.

“We need to make peace between us because wars are responsible for some of the worst impacts on biodiversity, climate and pollution,” he explained.

“That's why I asked for a just peace in Ukraine [...], that's why I asked for a ceasefire in Gaza with the release of the hostages and massive humanitarian aid to Gaza,” added Antonio Guterres.

He also reiterated his call for a peace that “respects Lebanese sovereignty and Lebanese territorial integrity and prepares the way for a political solution.”

With five heads of state and more than one hundred ministers, Antonio Guterres arrived in Cali on Tuesday to bring political weight to the negotiations on the implementation of the road map adopted in Canada two years ago. It set 23 goals to be achieved by 2030 to end the destruction of land, oceans and living beings.

But the negotiations, which began on October 21 in Cali, a rich reservoir of Colombian biodiversity, are stalled two days from their end because of the usual standoff over financial aid between rich countries and the developing world.

“Of course, finance is essential, but finance is not enough,” said Mr. Guterres. We must remedy the fact of “constantly neglecting” biodiversity “in relation to our efforts related to climate change”, he added.

“Without defeating the biodiversity crisis, we will not defeat the climate crisis, we will not defeat the pollution crisis and we will condemn our world to a situation of extreme poverty” through the destruction of natural resources, he warned.