A new study has revealed that only 15.5 per cent of the world’s coastal regions are ecologically intact. Led by researchers from the University of Queensland, the research calls for conservation measures in a bid to protect the remaining coastal regions.
The team of researchers used satellite data to properly analyse the extent to which human activities have affected coastlines across the globe.
The small areas of the coast that remain undamaged were mostly located in Canada, Russia, Greenland, Chile, Australia and the US. Very few such coastlines are also located in Europe, and countries including Vietnam, India and Singapore.
Brooke Williams, the study’s lead author and a conservation ecologist at the University of Queensland, in a report by The Guardian, said, “Our paper really advocates for coastal region restoration quite urgently. That such a low proportion is at the higher spectrum of the intactness scale is alarming. It’s not good news.”
Also read | World’s top companies failing to meet their own targets on tackling climate change
Meanwhile, another report revealed that the many big companies are failing to meet their own targets on tackling climate change.
The climate pledges of 25 of the world’s largest companies in reality only commit to reducing their emissions by 40 per cent on average, not 100 per cent as suggested by their “net zero” and “carbon neutral” claims.
The study evaluates 25 major companies – operating across different sectors and geographies – to determine the transparency and integrity of their headline climate pledges.
As per the study, Google, Amazon, Ikea, Apple and Nestle are among those failing to change quickly enough.
As per the report, only one company’s net-zero pledge was evaluated as having “reasonable integrity”; three with “moderate”, ten with “low”. The remaining 12 were rated as having “very low” integrity.
(With inputs from agencies)
