INTRODUCTION BY WWF INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR GENERAL KIRSTEN SCHUIJT T I ME F OR U R G E NC Y A N D AC T IO N If there are two words that summarize the current state of global conservation it's urgency and action. The work we have in front of us today is bolder, more complex and more ambitious than anything we have ever done collectively as a conservation organization before. The speed with which we continue to lose biodiversity in virtually all the places we care about is overwhelming. The impacts of climate change are being felt in every part of the world and much faster than many had anticipated. Divisions are becoming more emphatic, turbulence and polarization are rising across the globe and the space for civil society in many places is shrinking. At the same time, we now have the incredible opportunity offered by both the Paris Climate Agreement and the KunmingMontreal Global Biodiversity Framework, both of which have been signed by almost 200 countries. Both agreements contain many of WWF's priorities for 2030. Yet the world has seen many such global agreements in the past. A recent progress report on the Sustainable Development Goals provided a very candid message from UN Secretary-General António Guterres: " Unless we act now, the 2030 agenda will become an epitaph for a world that might have been. " How do we seize this momentum to ensure the commitments made in the global biodiversity and climate agreements we all worked so hard for do not become mere 2030 epitaphs? > WWF INTERNATIONAL 2023 © Wideangle Media / WWF-Switzerlandhttps://hlpf.un.org/sites/default/files/2023-07/SDG%20Progress%20Report%20Special%20Edition.pdf?_gl=1*d54nid*_ga*Mjg5MjA2NDcxLjE2NjU2NzA5ODU.*_ga_TK9BQL5X7Z*MTcwNDcxMjk3Ny4xNC4xLjE3MDQ3MTI5ODguMC4wLjA.