As delegates at the Copenhagen summit discuss a new climate treaty, green activists here are hoping that it would focus on emission cuts and safeguarding of biodiversity.
The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and over 100 other NGOs across the world, which are partners of the UK-based BirdLife International, have stressed on replacing the "wasteful and energy-intensive lifestyles with holistic, balanced and energy-saving lifestyles."
"As a consequence of climate change about 15-37 per cent of species could be extinct by 2050, according to one global study. If the rise in temperature is more than 2 degree Celsius, it would be catastrophic for birds, nature, people and the global economy," BNHS Director Asad Rahmani said.
Sea-level rise will result in large-scale human population shift and further pressures on remaining natural habitats, he warned while calling for appropriate emission cuts to save the biodiversity from devastation.
The BirdLife International and its partners have prepared an action plan asking the developed countries to take the lead in cutting emissions so that global temperature increase is capped to less than 2 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
At the same time, it said, developing countries should also ensure that their emissions do not reach levels as experienced by developed countries in the past decades. Global emissions should peak and decline by 2020 and go to 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.
