Sociologies of climate change are not enough. Putting the global biodiversity crisis on the sociological agenda

Abstract

In December 2022, the 15 meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity adopted what was described in the official press release as a ‘historic package of measures deemed critical to addressing the dangerous loss of biodiversity and restoring natural ecosystems’ (CBD 2022). These included protection of at least 30% of the world’s lands, inland waters, coastal areas, and oceans by 2030 (thereby endorsing the ‘global deal for nature’ or 30 × 30 initiative proposed by Dinerstein et al. 2019) along with restoration complete or under way on at least 30% of degraded terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and a suite of other goals and targets. I will outline these in a little more detail below. However, my aim in this essay is not to provide a comprehensive overview of the agreed KunmingMontreal Global Biodiversity Framework but to consider its implications for sociology and cognate social sciences – to ask how signing of this ‘landmark agreement’ might inform research agendas, and the practical contribution of sociology to more just and sustainable futures.