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Head of State calls for increased efforts in nitrogen management at the UN Summit on Biodiversity

GEF-UNEP/UK CEH INMS Project

By IW:LEARN

October 28^th, 2020

During his statement at the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity on 30 September 2020, H.E. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka, urged world leaders to direct more efforts towards improved management of nitrogen as it is imperative not only to protecting biodiversity but sustaining life itself.

Click to watch the video — “We as world leaders, must better manage nitrogen, ensuring the sustenance of humankind.” - President Gotabaya Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka at the UN Summit on Biodiversity.

Under the theme “Urgent action on biodiversity for sustainable development,” the high-level UN Summit on Biodiversity was convened in the margins of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA). The Summit brought together UN Secretary-General António Guterres and close to a hundred Heads of State and Government, and senior officials from international organizations, in a partially virtual event, with those at the UN Headquarters observing COVID19 preventive measures. In this first ever virtual global summit dedicated to biodiversity, world leaders raised concern that the Aichi Biodiversity Targets will not be reached by the 2020 deadline. They emphasized the need for a bolder stance and show of unity towards a post-2020 global biodiversity framework contributing to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity of mankind ‘living in harmony with nature.’

We are part of that fragile web -- and we need it to be healthy so we and future generations may thrive.

- UN Secretary-General António Guterres

The statement of the President of Sri Lanka highlighted the need to work together in building governance frameworks that address each stage of the nitrogen cycle, to manage the transboundary impacts of reactive nitrogen, and make it part of the solution for global environmental challenges and biodiversity loss.

Sri Lanka, with support from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), was at the forefront of the adoption of the Colombo Declaration on Sustainable Nitrogen Management signed by the members states of UNEP on 24 October 2019. (Read also: Colombo Declaration Calls for Tackling Global Nitrogen Challenge). The Colombo Declaration came about with the technical support of the International Nitrogen Management System (INMS) Project, a joint activity of the UNEP and the International Nitrogen Initiative, and financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Why nitrogen

Nitrogen is everywhere - in the air, land and water, yet is invisible to the naked eye. And although not as popular as the other chemical elements, nitrogen is a crucial element for building structures of living organisms. In its unreactive di-nitrogen form (N2), nitrogen makes up almost 80% of the air we breathe. On the other hand, the reactive forms of nitrogen, such as ammonia, provide an essential building block of animal and plant material, as a key element of DNA and RNA. Another form of reactive nitrogen is nitrous oxide (N2O), “laughing gas,” which is used in painkillers in medical and dental procedures, and can boost the power output of aircraft engines and motor racing vehicles, while also acting in the environment as a potent greenhouse gas. Nitrogen compounds are highly explosive, being used in mining, ammunition, fireworks and rocket fuel. Nitrogen compounds are also a key element in agriculture and food production, which helps meet the nourishment needs of the world's growing population.

Despite of its abundance and potentials, excessive use of nitrogen can have major negative impacts on the planet. When left unmanaged, excessive reactive nitrogen can be disastrous for biodiversity and the climate crisis. Too much nitrogen in water can lead to eutrophication affecting aquatic environments and fisheries, threatening living things and livelihoods that depend on them.

Head of State calls for increased efforts in nitrogen management at the UN Summit on Biodiversity

In the terrestrial environment, high concentration ammonia in some areas can benefit nitrogen-loving species, whereas other species suffer, leading a few species to dominate the environment while devastating correct balance of biodiversity. The same thing can happen in water when excess nitrogen from land spills into waterways. Eutrophication is triggered by the abundance of nitrogen in water environments which can cause blue-green algae to flourish and take over which can lead to ‘algal blooms,’ resulting to ‘dead zones’ for other species, such as fish struggling to get a share of the water’s oxygen consumed mostly by decomposition of these algae.

Algal bloom in the Baltic Sea, August 2015. Photo: European Space Agency.

A greenhouse gas (GHG), nitrous oxide is almost 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide (CO2). To address global warming, it is therefore vital to manage nitrogen more sustainably.

‘Excess reactive nitrogen represents a major environmental threat that is only now beginning to be fully appreciated. At a global level, humans have more than doubled the production and cycling of reactive nitrogen, leading to a plethora of impacts that interact across all global spheres: atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and geosphere.’

Sutton et al., 2009

If mankind is to succeed in the fight against climate change and in securing the world’s natural biodiversity, food and water supplies, livelihoods, and its very existence, then nitrogen cycle management must be put at the core of scientific and governance priorities across human society.

To broaden understanding about the global nitrogen challenge, a self-paced MOOC has been organized by The University of Edinburgh available for FREE in seven languages (English, Hungarian, Hindi, Sinhalese, Urdu, Dari and Nepalese).

About the ‘Towards INMS’ Project

The ‘Targeted Research for improving understanding of the global nitrogen cycle towards the establishment of an International Nitrogen Management System (INMS)’ project or ‘Towards INMS’ is working to deliver the INMS within the next of couple years as a science support process for international nitrogen policy development. It is implemented by UNEP with funding through the GEF, and executed by the UK and its Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) on behalf of the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI). There are over 70 global project partners supporting the work through co-finance. The project is also conducting five regional demonstrations which represent on-the-ground interventions with scientists and stakeholders to show the transformative potential of a joined-up nitrogen approach.

‘Towards INMS’ is developing the evidence base to showcase the need for effective practices for global nitrogen management and highlight options to maximize the multiple benefits of better nitrogen use. The project is providing a key opportunity to pull together a global and critical mass of science evidence on the nitrogen cycle, and to develop a sustained process that gets science, governments, businesses and civil society working together to build common understanding and deliver real change.

For more information on the GEF-UNEP/CEH INMS Project, please contact the Project Coordinator Clare Howard (cbritt@ceh.ac.uk) or the Project Coordination Unit (inms@ceh.ac.uk), and visit the project website and the project page on iwlearn.net.