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20th December 2022 (6 Topics)

COP15 biodiversity summit: Key takeaways

Context

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

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.

Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992

  • The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) came into force on 29 December 1993. It has three main objectives:
    • Biodiversity conservation.
    • Sustainable use of biodiversity components.
    • Equitable and equitable distribution of benefits from the use of genetic resources.
  • The Convention was unveiled on June 5, 1992, at the Rio “Earth Summit”.
  • This agreement is a legally binding agreement approved by 180 countries.
  • The CBD Secretariat is based in Montreal, Canada and operates under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program.
  • Areas of legal responsibility are biodiversity conservation, sustainable use of natural resources and equal sharing of benefits from their sustainable use.
  • The conference came into effect in 1993. Many biological problems are being addressed, including the conservation of habitats, intellectual property rights, environmental safety and the rights of indigenous peoples.
  • It has two supplementary agreements, the Cartagena Protocol and Nagoya Protocol.
    • Cartagena Protocol: It is an international treaty governing the movements of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology from one country to another.

Nagoya Protocol: It deals with Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS).

 

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