Historic biodiversity deal at UN conference

Montreal: After four years of fractious talks, nearly 200 countries, including India, approved a historic Paris-style deal on Monday to protect and reverse dangerous loss to global biodiversity following an intense final session of negotiations at the UN CoP15 summit here in Canada.

Amid loud applause from assembled delegates, the president of the CoP15 biodiversity summit, which started on December 7, Chinese environment minister Huang Runqiu, declared the Kunming-Montreal Agreement adopted. The chair manoeuvred to ignore Congo’s last-minute move which had refused to back the text and demanded greater funding for developing countries as part of the accord.

The Chinese-brokered deal aims at saving the lands, oceans and species from pollution, degradation and climate change. Monitored wildlife populations — mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish — have seen a 69 per cent drop on average since 1970, according to the Living Planet Report (LPR) 2022 of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

One of the most contentious issues in the negotiations was the finance package to support conservation efforts globally, and particularly in developing countries. The deal commits to progressively increase the level of financial resources from all sources by 2030, mobilising at least $200 billion per year. This represents roughly a doubling from a 2020 baseline.

A major achievement is also the commitment to $20 billion in international finance flows by 2025 and $30 billion by 2030. The 23 targets in the accord include cutting environmentally “destructive” farming subsidies, reducing the risk from pesticides, and tackling invasive species.

Last week, India said a numerical global target for pesticide reduction in the agriculture sector is unnecessary and must be left for countries to decide. It also said agriculture sector in India, like developing countries, is the source of “life, livelihoods, and culture for millions,” and support to it cannot be targeted for elimination.

It is being compared to the landmark plan to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius under the Paris Agreement.

“Agreeing on a shared global goal that will guide collective and immediate action to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 is an exceptional feat for those negotiating the Global Biodiversity Framework, and a win for planet,” said Marco Lambertini, director general, WWF International.

 “It sends a clear signal and must be the launch pad for action from governments, business, and society to transition towards a nature-positive world, in support of climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals,” Lambertini said. "It is the equivalent to 1.5C in climate and vital to catalysing action toward a nature-positive world and holding everyone accountable,” he added. Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, CEO, and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility, said the agreement reached is a significant breakthrough for biodiversity.

“It reflects never-before-seen recognition from countries at all income levels that biodiversity loss must be stopped through high-ambition changes to our society's relationship with nature and the way our global economy operates,” Rodriguez said. “It also reflects a determination from political leaders around the world to make this happen,” he added.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) welcomed the agreement reached at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity to agree on a new plan to preserve and protect nature with the new Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). “This agreement means people around the world can hope for real progress to halt biodiversity loss and protect and restore our lands and seas in a way that safeguards our planet and respects the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities,” UN Development Programme Administrator Achim Steiner.

Lin Li, Senior Director of Global Policy and Advocacy at WWF International, noted that although the agreement's mission to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 has the right level of ambition, yet if the goals and targets are added up they alone are not enough to achieve this. “For example, it lacks a numerical target to reduce the unsustainable footprint of production and consumption. This is disappointing and will require governments to take action at the national level,” adds Li.

The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) is the first such framework on biodiversity adopted since the Aichi Biodiversity Targets at COP10 in Nagoya, Japan in 2010. Negotiations for the deal started four years ago. The conference was originally scheduled to take place from 15-28 October 2020, in Kunming, China, but was postponed several times as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. COP 15 then took place in two parts, with the first one held in a virtual format. Nearing the conclusion of the two-week meeting, from December 7-19, nations agreed on a historic package of measures deemed critical to addressing the dangerous loss of biodiversity and restoring natural ecosystems.

Convened under UN auspices, chaired by China, and hosted by Canada, the 15th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF), including four goals and 23 targets for achievement by 2030. Among the global targets for 2030 is the effective conservation and management of at least 30 per cent of the world's lands, inland waters, coastal areas and oceans, with emphasis on areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and services. Currently, 17 and 10 per cent of the world's terrestrial and marine areas respectively are under protection.

The deal also aims to reduce to near zero the loss of areas of high biodiversity importance, including ecosystems of high ecological integrity and cut global food waste in half and significantly reduce overconsumption and waste generation. It also intends to cut by half both excess nutrients and the overall risk posed by pesticides and highly hazardous chemicals.

The agreement will progressively phase out or reform by 2030 subsidies that harm biodiversity by at least USD 500 billion per year, while scaling up positive incentives for biodiversity's conservation and sustainable use.

The deal requires large and transnational companies and financial institutions to monitor, assess, and transparently disclose their risks, dependencies, and impacts on biodiversity through their operations, supply and value chains, and portfolios. “Without such action, there will be a further acceleration in the global rate of species extinction, which is already at least tens to hundreds of times higher than it has averaged over the past 10 million years,” the GBF warned.

Experts say it will now be essential that countries deliver on the Kunming-Montreal Agreement. This includes translating it into ambitious national plans and policies commensurate with the scale of the nature crisis.

“Countries must update national biodiversity strategies and action plans to align them with the global goal of reversing biodiversity loss by 2030,” Lambertini added.