Without fanfare, the final part of the fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity, chaired by the Chinese Minister of Ecology and the Environment, Huang Runqiu, began in Montreal on Wednesday 7 December, concluding 4 years of negotiations on a post-2020 global biodiversity framework.
“The European Union comes to Montreal with one goal: to achieve an ambitious agreement to protect and restore the only planet we have. Bringing nature back (in the world: (editor’s note) ensures our future”, the European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevičius, recalled on Tuesday evening.
He said he was proud that the previous day the European Parliament and EU Council had reached an agreement on “the first law in the world” aiming to curb global deforestation for which the EU is responsible (see EUROPE 13078/9) - a contribution the EU believes will make it a world leader after the Commission proposed binding targets for nature restoration in June (see EUROPE 12977/17).
Mr Sinkevičius will be in Montreal on 14 December for the high-level negotiating session. Few heads of State are expected.
The EU will negotiate measurable objectives and targets, namely: - protecting at least 30% of land and oceans by 2030; - restoring 3 billion hectares of land and ocean; - bringing to an end human-caused species extinctions; - combatting unsustainable agriculture, forestry and fisheries; - tackling the drivers of biodiversity loss, such as pesticides, invasive alien species and plastics; - strengthening the links between biodiversity and climate action with nature-based solutions.
It wants these objectives to be supported by a robust monitoring and review process and by clear provisions for increased funding - from public and private, national and international sources (see EUROPE 13074A27, 13049/2).
On Wednesday, the European Environment Agency stressed in a briefing that effective nature finance requires better data on biodiversity to measure the impact of investments and standardised models for the environmental impacts of different business activities.
A delegation from the European Parliament will visit Canada at the end of the negotiations. MEPs call for a target of restoring at least 30% of land and marine ecosystems by 2030 and for a Montreal agreement to mirror the Paris Climate Agreement, but are not overly optimistic (see EUROPE 13069/9, 12986/7).
The European Committee of the Regions (CoR), meanwhile, says it will fight for the formal recognition of the key role of sub-national governments, cities and local authorities in biodiversity - recognition that is “still lacking, both in the EU’s 2030 biodiversity strategy and in the global framework”, the CoR said on Wednesday.
The EEA’s note: https://aeur.eu/f/4is (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)