Experts warn that ambitious targets for nature will have to be agreed at UN meeting, moved from China to Canada after two years of waiting
Still, the date of a key UN nature summit has been announced after more than two years of waiting and amid fears that momentum to halt biodiversity loss around the world has been lost.
Ahead of the latest negotiating circular in Nairobi this week, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity showed that the COP15 biodiversity convention will now take a position in Montreal, Canada, from December 5 to 17, after it has become transparent that China would not be hosting the occasion in Kunming due to the country’s zero Covid policy.
This comes after several pandemic-related delays at the meeting, which was scheduled for October 2020, and amid intense frustration with Beijing, which for the first time chairs a UN primary environmental agreement.
Fears were growing about the prohibitive charge for small countries to participate in COP15 if it was held in China, as well as restrictions on civil society, indigenous teams and the press.
At COP15, the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, governments will negotiate new targets to protect biodiversity for this decade. The agreement, “a Paris agreement for nature,” aims to curb the endemic loss of biodiversity around the world and is a component of the UN’s global plan for humanity to live here in harmony with nature. 2050. La summit was originally scheduled to take place in Kunming, China, in October 2020, but after several delays, the first in-person assembly is scheduled for December 2022 in Montreal, Canada.
Why is this a big deal? Time is running out to act. A foreign organization of scientists, in addition to Professor Paul Ehrlich of The Population Bomb, warned in January 2021 that the planet is facing a “terrible long race of mass extinction, declining fitness and climate disturbances” that threaten human survival. The world has failed to achieve a single goal agreed ten years ago to stop the destruction of wildlife and important ecosystems.
Are only governments worried? At the 2021 World Economic Forum, business leaders said biodiversity loss is the third greatest existential or long-term risk to the world and one of the five most sensitive hazards in terms of impact, along with infectious diseases, lack of climate action, weapons of mass destruction and herbal resource crises.
What could the Kunming Agreement look like? In January 2021, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity published a 21-point draft agreement. It commits signatories to protect at least 30% of the planet, invasive species and reduce pollutants from plastic waste and excess nutrients by 50%. to negotiate well the projects of objectives.
At an assembly on Tuesday, officials approved the COP15 plan near the U. N. headquarters on biodiversity in Quebec City. China will continue to organize the event and will do so in coordination with the Canadian government.
Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s environment minister, said the country is proud to host the conference. “There is a pressing need for foreign partners to stop and oppose the alarming loss of biodiversity around the world,” he said.
The decade-long nature summit will take place after Cop27 in Egypt but will coincide with the World Cup in Qatar, raising fears of a lack of attention and involvement from top politicians and ministers, which is a key component of cop26 in Glasgow, Scotland. The latest global framework agreement on biodiversity is expected to be negotiated in the hours leading up to the World Cup final on December 18.
In a parliamentary committee on Monday, British environment ministers Lord Goldsmith and George Eustice declined to verify whether the prime minister would be present but said he would likely play a role.
In a statement, China’s Environment Minister Huang Runqiu said the country should underline its enterprise and its continued commitment to all parties and stakeholders for the good fortune of Cop15.
Negotiations on the deal will resume this week in Nairobi, Kenya, with significant divisions over proposals for 30% of land and seas, cash for biodiversity and the use of virtual series data to produce cosmetics, medicines and other products.
Governments have never achieved the purpose of preventing the destruction of nature and it is feared that this agreement is a repeat of what happened before, amid considerations of a stalemate with the north and south of the world over resources for grass sites.
In March, the end of talks in Geneva saw dramatic intervention across Gabon on behalf of an emerging countries organization calling for $100 billion (£80 billion) in biodiversity finance, on top of the $100 billion in climate finance it splits before Flic27.
Despite the clarity about the cop15 date, Oscar Soria, director of the crusade on online activism site Avaaz, said the talks had lost momentum and it was a missed opportunity to show leadership in the environment.
“2020 was meant to be the super year for nature led by China; two years later, Beijing’s indecision has severely undermined a diplomatic procedure aimed at halting biodiversity loss.
“Now, this super year of failures can only have been avoided through UN leaders. We only have a few months and many diplomatic tasks need to be done. And while it is now known when and where the next COP will take place, whether it will take place, there remains a great deal of doubt about China’s ability to assume the presidency well towards an agreement ambitious by nature,” he said.
Li Shuo, policy adviser at Greenpeace China, said: “Despite everything, governments have taken a resolution on the position and date of Cop15. This now deserves to concentrate everyone’s brain on the quality of the agreement. This means ambitious targets to ensure solid coverage both on land and at sea and a physically powerful set of implementation measures.
“The upcoming preparatory consultation in Nairobi will see countries move forward on the draft agreement. The remaining months until Cop15 will be used well to unlock contentious issues such as finances. »
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