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2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference

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This article is about the 15th biodiversity conference. For the 15th climate change conference, see 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
United Nations Biodiversity Conference
COP15
Date7–19 December 2022.
Venue(s)Palais des congrès de Montréal
CitiesMontreal, Quebec, Canada
ParticipantsConvention on Biological Diversity member countries
Follows← Egypt 2018
Precedes→ Colombia 2024
Websitehttps://www.cbd.int/meetings/COP-15

The 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was a conference held in Montreal, Canada, which led to the international agreement to protect 30% of land and oceans by 2030 (30 by 30) and the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

History

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The conference was originally scheduled to be held in October 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[1] It was rescheduled to be held in April 2022 in Kunming, China,[2][3][4] but was postponed again, for a fourth time due to China's zero-COVID policy, to the third quarter of 2022 according to the UN secretariat office on March 29.[5] In May 2022, China requested Canada to assume the host responsibility. The Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault met with representatives from the High Ambition Coalition in early June 2022 and these representatives asked Canada to host COP15.[6] The Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau approved the proposal. In June 2022, the UN secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity and China's environment ministry said in separate statements that the meeting would be held in December 2022 in Montreal, Canada, where the secretariat is based, though China would remain the president of the summit.[7] This arrangement is consistent with previous practices of moving the meeting to a different country, such as the 2017 United Nations Climate Change Conference (Fiji held the presidency while Germany organized the meeting for practical purpose) and the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference (Chile maintained the presidency despite the meeting being moved to Spain due to political instability in Chile). While the host countries of previous COPs had one to two years to organize the conference, Canada had just five months to prepare for the arrival of 18,000 delegates from 196 CBD member states, non-governmental organizations, industry groups and academia.[6]

This is the second time Montreal served as the host city for a UN Conference of Parties meeting, the first time being the COP11 climate change conference in 2005. Montreal also played host to the negotiations for the Montreal Protocol.

Development

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Lead-up

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Several cities signed the "Montreal Pledge" in advance of the conference to commit to protect biodiversity in their cities through 15 actions.[8]

Negotiations and adoption

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During the talks, divisions remained on numerous issues as the conference went into its final days, such as disputes over the funding for conservation efforts.[9][10] There was also discussion that protections for marine biodiversity could be dropped completely.[11] An op-ed published in The Guardian in mid-December criticized the proceedings as being very slow and lacking urgency.[12]

On December 19, almost every country on earth signed onto the agreement which includes protecting 30% of land and oceans by 2030 (30 by 30) and 22 other targets intended to reduce biodiversity loss. When the agreement was signed only 17% of land territory and 10% of ocean territory were protected. The agreement includes protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and changing the current subsidy policy to a one better for biodiversity protection. However, it makes a step backward in protecting species from extinction in comparison to the Aichi Targets.[13][14] Some countries said the agreement does not go far enough to protect biodiversity, and that the process was rushed.[13] Only the United States and the Holy See did not join it.[15] The absence of the United States signature weakened the agreement. However, the country helped to reach the agreement, strongly advanced some of the targets mentioned in it, especially 30 by 30, nationally and internationally and is a major donor to biodiversity protection issues.[16]

Content

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François Legault, premier of Quebec, during the opening ceremony of the COP15

In addition to protecting 30% of land and oceans by 2030, the agreement includes also recovering 30% of earth degraded ecosystems and increasing funding for biodiversity issues.[17] Other targets for the year 2030 include cutting overconsumption and waste, reducing food waste by 50%, and completely stop harming ecosystems that are strongly important for biodiversity. There are also 4 targets for the year 2050 which includes increasing the area of natural ecosystems, restoring their integrity and normal functioning, reducing tenfold the human caused extinction rate, and protecting traditional knowledge.[18]

COP15 adopted a comprehensive package of 6 items:[18]

  • L25: Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)
  • L26: Monitoring framework for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
  • L27: Mechanisms for planning, monitoring, reporting and review
  • L28: Capacity-building and development and technical and scientific cooperation
  • L29: Resource mobilization
  • L30: Digital sequence information on genetic resources.

The advocacy of the UNCBD Women's Cacus and its members led to a Rio Convention for the first time in its 30-year history to adopt a stand-alone target, Target 23, on gender equality in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.[19]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 15) (Part 1)". IISD. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  2. ^ Presented; Greenfield, produced by Madeleine Finlay with Patrick; Onuchukwu, the sound design was by Tony; Sanderson, and the executive producers were Max; Stephens, Danielle (2022-03-29). "COP15: is 2022 the year we save biodiversity?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
  3. ^ "Guide to COP15". British Ecological Society. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
  4. ^ "Press corner". European Commission - European Commission. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
  5. ^ "Biodiversity summit in Kunming, China delayed for fourth time-organisers". Reuters. 2022-03-29. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  6. ^ a b Ballingall, Alex; Allen, Kate (2022-12-23). "COP15 in Montreal was messy and imperfect. How Canada and China came together to try to save the planet anyway". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  7. ^ "Canada to host UN biodiversity summit after event moved from China over COVID-19 | Globalnews.ca". Global News. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  8. ^ Riga, Andy (16 November 2022). "Major cities join Plante in vowing to protect nature ahead of COP15 gathering". Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  9. ^ Briggs, Helen; Gill, Victoria (December 13, 2022). "Biodiversity: Can we set aside a third of our planet for nature?". BBC. Retrieved December 14, 2022.
  10. ^ Briggs, Helen (December 16, 2022). "Biodiversity: Row over funding threatens to stall talks". BBC. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
  11. ^ Michael, Chris (December 16, 2022). "Watered down: why negotiators at Cop15 are barely mentioning the ocean". The Guardian. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
  12. ^ The Secret Negotiator (December 14, 2022). "Cop15 was meant to be nature's Paris moment, but Greta Thunberg's 'blah, blah, blah' cry is proving right". The Guardian. Retrieved December 14, 2022.
  13. ^ a b Paddison, Laura (December 19, 2022). "More than 190 countries sign landmark agreement to halt the biodiversity crisis". CNN. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  14. ^ Curry, Tierra (December 24, 2022). "COP15 biodiversity summit: Paving the road to extinction with good intentions". The Hill. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  15. ^ Einhorn, Catrin (December 19, 2022). "Nearly Every Country Signs On to a Sweeping Deal to Protect Nature". The New York Times. Retrieved December 27, 2022. The United States is just one of two countries in the world that are not party to the Convention on Biological Diversity, largely because Republicans, who are typically opposed to joining treaties, have blocked United States membership. That means the American delegation was required to participate from the sidelines. (The only other country that has not joined the treaty is the Holy See.)
  16. ^ WESTON, PHOEBE; GREENFIELD, PATRICK. "The World Made a Biodiversity Pact, And Of Course We Aren't Part of It". Mother Jones. The Guardian. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  17. ^ Greenfield, Patrick; Weston, Phoebe (19 December 2022). "Cop15: historic deal struck to halt biodiversity loss by 2030". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  18. ^ a b "COP15: NATIONS ADOPT FOUR GOALS, 23 TARGETS FOR 2030 IN LANDMARK UN BIODIVERSITY AGREEMENT". Convention on Biological Diversity. United Nations. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  19. ^ "Women Make History At CBD COP15". inewsexpress. 21 December 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
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