French President Emmanuel Macron has announced plans for his government to dedicate more effort and work towards increased protection of biodiversity.

This comes after Macron’s meeting with scientists who spoke of the risks surrounding biodiversity, warning that its loss is just as much a threat as climate change.

After the meeting of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in Paris, Macron said: "What is at stake is the very possibility of having a habitable Earth.”

Macron announced some of his government’s plans; including decreasing food waste in schools and restaurants, working to drop the usage of pesticide by 50% by 2025 through a change in food production methods, expanding protected marine and land areas to 30% by 2022, revamping agricultural land that has suffered the consequences of chemical processes, and restraining trash and plastic waste in general.

The IPBES shared a report that revealed around a million species were nearing extinction, according to the work of some 450 experts. This, as the IPBES said, would "undermine our ability for poverty reduction, food and water security, human health and the overall goal of leaving nobody behind.”

Macron announced he would present a climate initiative at a meeting held in Romania this week for European Union leaders.

He said: "We are in the process of forming an alliance on this issue.”