COP 15 BIODIVERSITY SUMMIT
1. Context
A major international environmental conference has just concluded in Montreal, Canada, promising to take urgent action to protect and restore the world’s biodiversity: all the different forms of life, plants as well as animals, that inhabit this planet.3
This conference was the biodiversity equivalent of the more high-profile climate meetings held yearly.
Signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a 1993 agreement, meet every two years not annually like the climate meetings to work on a global plan to halt biodiversity loss and restore natural ecosystems
The Montreal meeting was the 15th edition of this conference, hence the name COP15 or the 15th Conference of the Parties to the CBD.
The Montreal Conference has delivered a new agreement called the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which contains four goals and 23 targets that need to be achieved by 2030.
The GBF is being compared to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change that is guiding global climate action
Despite an objection from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is home to lush tracts of rainforest, the Chinese presidency and Canadian host government declared the deal approved.
2. Key takeaways
2.1.Conservation, protection and restoration
Delegates committed to protecting 30 per cent of land and 30 per cent of coastal and marine areas by 2030, fulfilling the deal’s highest-profile goal, known as 30-by-30.
Indigenous and traditional territories will also count toward this goal, as many countries and campaigners pushed for during the talks.
The deal also aspires to restore 30 per cent of degraded lands and waters throughout the decade, up from an earlier aim of 20 per cent.
2.2.Money for Future
Signatories aim to ensure $200 billion per year is channelled to conservation initiatives, from public and private sources.
Wealthier countries should contribute at least $20 billion of this annually by 2025, and at least $30 billion annually by 2030.
This appeared to be the Democratic Republic of Congo’s main source of objection to the package.
2.3.Companies reports impact on Biodiversity
Companies should analyse and report how their operations affect and are affected by biodiversity issues.
The parties agreed to large companies and financial institutions being subject to “requirements” to make disclosures regarding their operations, supply chains and portfolios.
This reporting is intended to progressively promote biodiversity, reduce the risks posed to businesses by the natural world, and encourage sustainable production.
2.4.Subsidies which are harmful
Countries committed to identifying subsidies that deplete biodiversity by 2025, and then eliminating, phasing out or reforming them.
They agreed to slash those incentives by at least $500 billion a year by 2030, and increase incentives that are positive for conservation.
2.5.Pollution and pesticides
One of the deal’s more controversial targets sought to reduce the use of pesticides by up to two-thirds.
But the final language to emerge focuses on the risks associated with pesticides and highly hazardous chemicals instead, pledging to reduce those threats by “at least half”, and instead focusing on other forms of pest management.
Overall, the Kunming-Montreal agreement will focus on reducing the negative impacts of pollution to levels that are not considered harmful to nature, but the text provides no quantifiable target here.
3. Monitoring and reporting progress
All the agreed aims will be supported by processes to monitor progress in the future, in a bid to prevent this agreement from meeting the same fate as similar targets that were agreed upon in Aichi, Japan, in 2010, and never met
National action plans will be set and reviewed, following a similar format used for greenhouse gas emissions under U.N.-led efforts to curb climate change.
Some observers objected to the lack of a deadline for countries to submit these plans.
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For Prelims: Montreal protocol, Global biodiversity framework(GBF)
For Mains:
1. Why have countries failed to meet their biodiversity goals?
2. What is the COP15 Biodiversity Commitment, delivered in Montreal?
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