An international negotiation meeting begun in Geneva on Monday 14 March to discuss the draft text of a post-2020 framework for global diversity to be adopted at COP15 in Kunming this year. For the EU, this preparatory session (14-29 March) is the last chance to achieve an ambitious result.
This is the first meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) since the latest IPCC report, which highlighted the key role of biodiversity in responding to climate change, and the CBD negotiation process is 2 years behind schedule.
“We need to significantly narrow the gaps between Parties’ positions. The EU goes to the Geneva negotiations pushing for ambition and leading by example”, said Commissioner for Environment Virginijus Sinkevičius on Monday.
The Kunming Declaration, adopted in October 2021, had been considered by the EU as a starting point for significant improvement (see EUROPE 12812/7). With its 2030 Biodiversity Strategy and, soon, binding nature restoration targets to be proposed by the Commission on 23 March through a regulation (see EUROPE 12895/10), the EU will negotiate, as a minimum, the following points:
- ambitious, measurable and time-bound objectives, milestones and targets that will aim to ensure that all the planet’s ecosystems are restored, resilient and adequately protected by 2050;
- targets to address the direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity loss and to ensure sustainable use of natural resources, including the target to protect at least 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030, complemented by targets to address the direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity loss;
- operational arrangements to mobilise funding and other means of implementation, with the Commission indicating in September that the EU would double its international funding for global biodiversity, particularly for the most vulnerable countries (see EUROPE 12797/10);
- stronger implementation, monitoring and review processes, through transparency on implementation, reporting, global gap analysis and assessment, with redoubled efforts where necessary;
- the effective implementation of the objective on access to biodiversity-related genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising therefrom, while ensuring that science, research and innovation continue to provide all the benefits that also support the implementation of the other objectives, and ensuring respect for the rights of indigenous peoples and the full and effective participation of these peoples and stakeholders.
Developing countries are desperate to find a solution for the Digital Sequences of Genetic Resources (DSI). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)