COP15 biodiversity summit: Key takeaways

A United Nations nature summit (COP 15) culminated recently, with a “global deal” to protect the ecosystems and prevent the further loss of already ravaged plant and animal populations.

About the COP 15 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) summit 2022:

• COP15 (CBD) is an international meeting bringing together governments from around the world.
• The event was organised in Montreal, Canada.
• Objective: To guide global action to preserve biodiversity through 2030 to halt and reverse nature loss.
• Procedure: The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the governing body of the Convention and advances implementation of the Convention through the decisions it takes at its periodic meetings.
• The Fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) is held in two phases.
  • Phase one took place virtually, from 11 to 15 October 2021 in Kunming, China.
  • Phase two is an in-person meeting in Montreal, Canada, from 7 to 19 December

Key agreements of the summit:

The key areas agreed on after two weeks of negotiations hosted in Montreal, Canada is as follows:

• To achieve 30-by-30 goal:
  • Countries committed to protecting 30% of land and 30% of coastal and marine areas by 2030, fulfilling the deal’s highest-profile goal, known as the 30-by-30 target.
  • Indigenous and traditional territories will also count toward this goal.
  • Also to restore 30% of degraded lands and waters throughout the decade, up from an earlier aim of 20%.
  • To prevent destroying intact landscapes and areas with a lot of species, bringing those losses close to zero by 2030.
• Money for nature:
  • Aims 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 every year by 2025, and at least $30 billion a year by 2030.
• Big companies report impacts on biodiversity:
  • The parties agreed to large companies and financial institutions being subject to “requirements” to make disclosures regarding their operations, supply chains and portfolios.
  • This was intended to progressively promote biodiversity, reduce the risks posed to businesses by the natural world, and encourage sustainable production.
• Harmful subsidies:
  • Countries committed to identifying subsidies that deplete biodiversity by 2025, and then eliminating, phasing out or reforming them.
  • The incentives by at least $500 billion a year will be slashed by 2030, and increase incentives that are positive for conservation.
• Pollution and pesticides:
  • The Parties aim 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 has been called for.
• 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.