9 December, Montreal, Canada - Three days into the start of the global biodiversity conference and the Pacific islands are already calling for more ambition, at a faster pace. The Fifteenth Conference of the Parties on the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) is now underway in Montreal, Canada uniting over 190 governments in agreement on targets to reverse and halt biodiversity loss.
The Aichi Biodiversity Targets ended in 2020, and with COVID-19 restricting global travel, the world underwent two years of virtual negotiations on the new Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) that continues the international commitment to halt biodiversity loss. It’s here at COP15 that the GBF is in the final stage of negotiations before being endorsed.
“Unfortunately, we are not progressing as much as we had hoped, even though we were given two extra years of negotiations because of COVID and we had hoped that with more time we would come to a consensus, but I think it actually has had the opposite effect,” said Ms Gwen Sisior of Palau.
In August 2019, Parties to the CBD started the work needed to develop draft text and targets for the new Global Biodiversity Framework with the intention for it to be adopted at CBD COP15 in 2020. However, due to COVID a number of different virtual negotiations then took place in 2020 and 2021, and then hybrid events in 2022 before the CBD COP15 took place in December 2022.
“When we first came back in Geneva, we started adding even more text than what we had originally agreed to during the first and the second meetings, which then elongated the entire process. I think part of it is us trying to get back to negotiating again and so the co-chairs were giving us more room to make changes - I think it’s just ballooned to where we are now having so much trouble agreeing on bracketed text.”
The current version of the text being negotiated has over 900 pieces of bracketed text. This is when parties to the convention insert their additions which will then be negotiated to an agreed text. Ultimately the final result will be a series of global targets that all 190-plus countries that are party to the CBD, will commit to. This will then result in actions on the ground to help achieve these goals which will be monitored and evaluated on a regular basis. The results of this will indicate to the international community as to just how well the world is progressing in meeting these targets across the next ten years.
“I think there’s a general understanding that we need to take action, and that we need to do it right this time for the planet but I think the rate at which the text is being negotiated is a little slow,” said Ms Sandeep Singh, the Director of Environment of Fiji.
“I think for humanity we all need to come together at this COP and do the right thing and be ambitious enough to be able to reverse biodiversity loss because if we don’t do it now, it will be very difficult for us to fix this later with restoration work. Parties need to take this seriously. As responsible citizens of the world, we must come to the table with the mindset that we will be negotiating a very ambitious deal here for the planet and all of humanity.”
Thirteen of the fourteen Pacific islands Parties are in Montreal, Canada this week to ensure the Pacific Islands’ priorities are reflected in the final outcome. The Pacific Ocean is home to over half of the world’s whale and dolphin species and our tropical Pacific has 25 per cent of the world’s coral reefs, 3 per cent of its mangroves and the rich tuna resources of the Western and Central Pacific Ocean supply 60 per cent of the world’s tuna – our Pacific biodiversity is critical for more than the survival of our Pacific islands way of life. Conserving and protecting our biodiversity is something the world must do together.
“Of course, we must be optimistic to ensure that we have a robust plan in place, but the pace here is not going as fast as everyone would hope for. There are still a lot of countries that are not happy with parts of the text but like most of us, we are hoping that we can have a plan by the end of the COP. With all the bracketed text in the draft GBF a lot of work needs to be done in the time of the conference,” said Mr Warwick Harris of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
While the Global Biodiversity Framework is the key part of negotiations at the CBD COP, there are also other ongoing components of the convention such as resource mobilisation, gender, and administrative elements that need to be addressed. All must be finalised by 19 December 2022. Once done so, GBF will guide and support national biodiversity actions on the ground across the planet. The Pacific island delegations at the CBD COP15 are working collectively to ensure the One Pacific voice is heard loud and clear in the negotiations while maintaining national positions.
“We’re currently developing our National Adaptation Plan and in recognising the role of nature in the short to medium term to meet our adaptation priorities it’s imperative that we reach an agreement here in Montreal on an ambitious, effective and coherent GBF to be coupled with a robust financial mechanism, to support grassroots level activities,” said Mr Harris.
The Fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) is held in Montreal, Canada from 7 – 19 December 2022. Chaired by the Government of China, the CBD COP15 will result in a new Global Biodiversity Framework that will continue the 2020 Biodiversity Targets with the global goal of halting biodiversity loss.
Fourteen Pacific Islands countries are Party to the CBD. They are contributing to a unified One Pacific Voice on collective issues at COP15. The countries present in Montreal are the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
Led by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), support to Pacific island countries has been implemented with technical input through the Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation (PIRT), and includes a One Pacific approach involving support from the Office of the Pacific Ocean Commissioner, and the Pacific Community at COP15 with financial assistance from the Government of Australia and the ACP MEA Phase 3 Project funded by the European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States for the ACP countries.
For more information on the CBD COP15 please visit: https://www.cbd.int/conferences/2021-2022 or email [email protected].