A new global biodiversity framework

In Montreal, member governments have agreed on a new framework, “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)” to halt the sharp and steady loss of biological species at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

What is Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)?

• The Global Biodiversity Framework is considered equivalent to the Paris Agreement on climate change in terms of its significance for protecting biodiversity.
• The 15^th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
• The framework has 23 targets that the world needs to achieve by 2030.
• Objectives: The new frameworks have four goals to achieve by 2050:
  • To halt the extinction and decline of biodiversity.
  • To enhance and retain nature’s services to humans by conserving.
  • To ensure fair and equitable benefits to all from the use of genetic resources.
  • To close the gap between available financial and other means of implementation and those necessary to achieve the 2050 Vision.

Key Points about Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF):

• Through Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), countries agreed to protect 30 percent of the planet by 2030.
• The countries pledged to achieve 23 targets to reverse ecosystem degradation under four overarching goals for the survival of the natural world.
• Under the GBF, countries also agreed to reduce harmful government subsidies worth 500 billion dollars annually, while vowing to identify subsidies that are harmful to biodiversity by 2025.
• Its other targets include reducing the use of pesticides by half and raising annual international financial flows from developed to developing countries to at least 20 billion dollars by 2025 and to at least 30 billion dollars by 2030.

What does the Kunming-Montreal pact aim to achieve?

• It sets out targets for 2030 on protection for:
  • degraded areas
  • resource mobilization for conservation
  • compensation for countries that preserve biodiversity
  • halting human activity linked to species extinction
  • reducing by half the spread of invasive alien species (introduced plants and animals that affect endemic biodiversity)
  • cutting pollution to non-harmful levels and
  • Minimizing climate change impact and ocean acidification, among others.

What funding arrangements are planned?

• By 2030, the GBF hopes to see at least $200 billion raised per year from all sources — domestic, international, public, and private — towards the implementation of the national action plans.
• In terms of international funding, developing countries should get at least $20 billion a year by 2025 and at least $30 billion by 2030 through contributions from developed countries.
• The Global Environment Facility (GEF), a multilateral body that partners with countries and agencies, has been asked to establish in 2023, and until 2030, a Special Trust Fund to support the implementation of the GBF.