At the end of their meeting in Sapporo (15-16 April), under the Japanese Presidency of the G7, the Climate and Environment Ministers of the seven largest economies (Japan, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States, plus the European Union) committed to the “full and swift implementation” of the ‘Kunming-Montreal’ Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and to integrate biodiversity into all sectors of activity.
The G7 Environment Ministers called the agreement that was reached in December 2022 at the COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity “historic” with goals and targets to protect and restore 30% of land and marine areas by 2030 (see EUROPE 13087/3).
EU Commissioner for Environment Virginijus Sinkevičius, who represented the EU at the meeting chaired by Japanese Minister Akihiro Nishimura, immediately welcomed “a strong commitment to the GBF”.
In their final communiqué, the G7 Ministers emphasised that this will be done “through whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches”.
They have made a commitment to revise, update and submit national biodiversity strategies and action plans that are aligned with the GBF and its goals and targets, or to communicate national goals that reflect, as appropriate, all GBF goals and targets in 2023 or at least sufficiently in advance of COP16.
The G7 is calling on all parties to the Convention to do the same and to reaffirm the importance of mobilising domestic resources to support these efforts. It gave assurances that it will support “more than 150 developing countries in revising or updating their NBSAPs [national biodiversity action plans] and establishing national biodiversity finance plans” while making “collective commitments to support resource mobilisation”.
The G7 Environment Ministers reaffirmed the commitment they made in 2021 in the ‘2030 Nature Compact’ to lead the transition through a ‘G7 Alliance on Nature Positive Economies’ (G7ANPE).
The mandate (or terms of reference) of this G7 ANPE was specified in an annex.
The Alliance will therefore be a forum for sharing knowledge and creating information networks on a voluntary basis in collaboration with the private sector and civil society. It will also be a contribution by G7 members to lead discussions and actions for the transition to NPEs that will involve all governments and societies.
All forms of integrating nature into economies, including public and private sector actions, will be covered by this.
Its work will include sharing information on business opportunities and improving disclosure – two pillars that have been identified but not limited.
See the G7 final communiqué: https://aeur.eu/f/6c3
See the press release on the G7 ANPE terms of reference: https://aeur.eu/f/6c6 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)