Alarmed by the decline in biodiversity and ecosystem services in Europe and globally, EU environment ministers want the EU to redouble its efforts to fully implement its own biodiversity strategy by 2020 and to participate constructively in the upcoming Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 14) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
The conclusions adopted by the Council on 10 October for this international conference call for the preparation of an ambitious global strategic plan beyond 2020, which provides a UN framework to halt and reverse the decline in global biodiversity and provide a vision for 2050 (see EUROPE 12111, 12086). This UN framework should include a process to launch voluntary commitments by all parties, individually or in coalition, for COP 15 in China in 2020 or earlier, the Council said.
The Council urges the EU and its member states to do their utmost in the next two years to address the main drivers of biodiversity decline with a view to achieving the Aichi targets, and to prepare the national reports required to contribute to the follow-up of the 2011-2020 strategic plan for biodiversity, foreseen at COP 14. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)