《经济学人》双语：生物多样性与气候变化有何联系？

原文标题：
Climate change and biodiversity
The laws of nature
Why climate change is intimately tied to biodiversity
气候变化与生物多样性
自然法则
为何气候变化与生物多样性紧密联系
 
There is a financial case for investing in biodiversity
生物多样性投资具有经济意义
 
[1]
The natural world is a source of beauty and wonder, but it also provides humans with essential services.
自然界不仅是美丽与奇迹的源泉，亦是人类赖以生存的基础。
 
Jungles, savannahs and mangroves act as buffers against infectious diseases and storm surges.
丛林、大草原和红树林抵御着传染病和风暴潮。
 
Forests channel moisture into rivers that irrigate crops, while their roots prevent landslides.
森林将水分汇入河流，灌溉庄稼，同时它们的根部可阻挡滑坡。
 
At a gathering on Monday in Montreal, 196 governments from around the world pledged to protect and restore 30% or more of the Earth’s water and land by 2030.
周一于蒙特利尔举行的一次会议上，来自世界各地的196个政府承诺到2030年保护并恢复地球上30%及以上的水土资源。
 

[2]
Lofty promises about preserving the world’s biodiversity have been made and broken many times before.
类似的关于保护地球生物多样性的空头支票早已有之。
 
One step towards avoiding yet more disappointment is to emphasise the close link between preserving biodiversity and the widely held goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions.
为避免再次期望落空，需要强调生物多样性和达到净零碳排放普世目标之间的紧密联系。
 
[3]
The destruction of natural environments is depressing, relentless and hard to ignore.
自然环境日渐恶化,无丝毫减弱之意，已至难以忽视之境。
 
The area of coral reefs has halved since the 1950s and the rate of loss is accelerating.
自20世纪50年代以来，珊瑚礁的面积缩小了一半，并仍在加速缩减。
 
Some 10m hectares of forest are lost worldwide every year.
全球各地每年约有1000万公顷的森林遭到破坏。
 
Less known is the link between biodiversity and climate change.
生物多样性和气候变化之间的联系更是少有人知。
 
Each year more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide emitted by industry and agriculture is absorbed by natural ecosystems.

每年工农业排放的二氧化碳中有1/4以上被自然生态系统吸收。

 
[4]
Around the world, investment in the energy transition is accelerating.
全球在能源转型上的投资不断增加。
 
Spending in 2022 on clean energy, for example, should reach $1.4trn, roughly a fifth above the pre-pandemic level.
例如，2022年在清洁能源上的花费已经达到了 1.4万亿，这大约是疫情前水平的 1/5。 
 
Scores of countries and thousands of big companies have plans to get to net-zero emissions within the next 20-30 years.
许多国家和成千上百的大企业计划在接下来的20年到30年间实现净零排放。 
 
Given that biodiversity has an important role in meeting these carbon-reduction goals, you might think that it would feature highly in these plans.
考虑到生物多样性在实现减碳目标上发挥着重要作用，你可能会以为生物多样性是这些计划的重要内容。
 
[5]
Not so. For example, Joe Biden’s chief piece of climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, contains about $400bn of subsidies for clean energy and other initiatives yet has too little to say about biodiversity.
其实不然。比如乔·拜登的气候立法的首要文件《美国降低通货膨胀法案》，其中包括投入约4000亿美元用于清洁能源和其他倡议，但很少提及生物多样性。 
Faced with tighter regulation of emissions and carbon-pricing schemes, many bosses are now dedicating more time and cash to cutting their firms’ carbon footprints.
面对愈发严格的排放规定和碳定价机制，现在许多老板把更多的时间和资金投入到减少他们公司碳足迹足迹上。
 
But most still regard biodiversity as a nice-to-have luxury that is far beyond their.
但更多的是将生物多样性视作远超出他们职责范围的奢侈品。
 
[6]
That needs to change.
这亟需改变。
 
Safeguarding biodiversity is an efficient way to control carbon emissions.
保护生物多样性是控制碳排放的有效方法。

More of the rising amounts of government spending being thrown at mitigating and adapting to climate change should be spent on it.

政府在缓解和适应气候变化上投入大量资金，这部分资金应该更多地用在生物多样性保护上。

 
[7]
In addition, companies and investment firms that are allocating huge sums to developing clean-energy sources, re-engineering industrial processes and developing carbon-capture technologies should pay more attention to the opportunities from preserving ecosystems.
此外，许多企业和投资公司分配了大量金额去开发清洁能源、重新规划工业生产和发展碳捕捉技术，而它们更应该把注意力放在保护生态系统上。
 
By investing in biodiversity—directing capital to projects that repair an ecosystem, for example—companies can offset their emissions.
把资金投入到像恢复一个生态系统这样的项目上，公司就可以用投资生物多样性来抵消排放。 
 
By some estimates, schemes to manage carbon-rich peatlands and wetlands and to reforest cleared land could provide more than one-third of the emissions reductions that are needed to prevent more than 2°C of global warming.
据估计，管理碳丰富的泥炭地和湿地和在空地上重新造林的计划可以减少1/3以上的排放量，而这些减排量可抵消2°C以上的全球气候变暖。 
[8]
Key to marshalling more capital is better measurement, so that the link between investment in natural projects, biodiversity and carbon is made clear.

投入更多资金的关键是有更好的措施，这样自然项目投资、生物多样性和碳排放之间的联系就很明确。

 
Today some so-called carbon-offset schemes that involve firms paying money to, say, plant a forest, are dubious and opaque—and belong to the realm of con-artists and scams rather than science.
如今一些所谓的碳抵消计划包括公司投入更多的资金去，比如说，种一片森林，这种计划并不可靠且令人费解--不过是骗子的把戏而非科学。
Better guidelines and practice can help and so can new technology.

更好的指导方针、实践、新技术有所裨益。

 
Drones and satellites can improve the measurement of biodiversity and accounting systems can measure how spending on biodiversity compares with funnelling cash into other kinds of carbon management.
无人机和卫星能促进生物多样性评估，会计系统可以衡量生物多样性投资与其他类型碳管理投资的对比情况。 
[9]
The services ecology
反哺生态
 
The planet is in a vicious cycle in which global warming damages ecosystems, in turn impairing their ability to absorb carbon.
地球处于恶性循环中，全球变暖破坏生态系统，转而破坏他们的吸碳能力。
 
Over the past 20 years the Amazon has become a net source of carbon dioxide, emitting 13% more than it captures.

过去20年中，亚马逊河已经变成了二氧化碳的净来源，排放量比捕捉量多13%。 

 
Spending money on nature need not only be an act of philanthropy. It can also be attractive for governments and firms investing in mitigating climate change.

投资大自然不仅是一种慈善行为，也可以吸引政府和企业在缓解气候变化上投资。

 
（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量636左右）
原文出自：2022年12月24日《The Economist》Leaders版块。

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Guo Zhenyan

本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
净零碳排放指的是一个国家、公司或产品，不会带来温室气体排放。这通常是通过减少排放，利用吸碳努力（如植树）平衡剩余排放，来实现的。
 
《美国降低通货膨胀法案》(也称美国通胀削减法案）：是美国有史以来针对气候能源领域的最大投资计划。2022年8月16日，美国总统拜登签署该案。法案包括未来十年投入约4300亿美元用于气候和清洁能源以及医疗保健领域等内容。
 
碳定价被视为减排领域中成本有效性最高的政策工具。碳定价（CarbonPricing）源于英文短语putapriceoncarbon，即将碳排放的外部成本内化为碳价。旨在通过提高碳密集型产品与服务的价格来反映其对环境与社会的影响。简言之，就是对温室气体（GHG）排放以每吨二氧化碳为单位给予明确定价的机制，主要包括碳税、碳排放交易体系（ETS）、碳信用机制、基于结果的气候金融（RBCF）、内部碳定价五种形式。
 
碳足迹Carbon Footprint，是指企业机构、活动、产品或个人通过交通运输、食品生产和消费以及各类生产过程等引起的温室气体排放的集合。它描述了一个人的能源意识和行为对自然界产生的影响，号召人们从自我做起。已有部分企业开始践行减少碳足迹的环保理念。
 
碳捕捉，就是捕捉释放到大气中的二氧化碳，压缩之后，压回到枯竭的油田和天然气领域或者其他安全的地下场所。吸引力在于能够减少燃烧化石燃料产生的有害气体——温室气体。在世界石油会议（WPC）上，能源行业的老总们都热切希望把它当作一个解决气候将变暖的方案。但是，技术瓶颈仍然存在，大规模发展的价格依然昂贵，让项目进行困难重重。
 
碳抵消机制的目的是正在执行/已经批准的减排活动项目经核查后产生的减排量在碳交易市场进行交易并能够用作排放量的抵消，减排量一般指常规情景外避免或封存的排放量。因为碳抵消机制源于自愿原则，但是其他定价机制中，受约束的企业一般有强制性的要求，所以“总量控制与排放交易”机制下的“配额”和“基线减排与信用交易”机制下的“减排量抵消额度”是有区别的。
 
【重点句子】（3 个）
The natural world is a source of beauty and wonder, but it also provides humans with essential services.
自然界不仅是美丽与奇迹的源泉，亦是人类赖以生存的基础。
 
Lofty promises about preserving the world’s biodiversity have been made and broken many times before.
类似的关于保护地球生物多样性的空头支票早已有之。
 
Safeguarding biodiversity is an efficient way to control carbon emissions.
保护生物多样性是控制碳排放的有效方法。