Biodiversity COP15 has just finished and governments have adopted the Kunming-Montreal Agreement. This is great news, but is only the start!
In many ways, all the COPs are just talking shops, and it's confusing that the Climate Change COP and the Biodiversity COP happened this year close together, but are numbered so differently. Climate Change COP26 happened earlier this year in Glasgow, Biodiversity COP15 has just ended in Montreal.
So, a quick definition: the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, or COP15, was the recent meeting in which the nations of the world came together to discuss the world's biodiversity. You can read about the history and background to the Biodiversity COPs on the website of the Natural History Museum, here.
The Kunming Montreal Agreement commits the world to ending and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030. It aims to conserve at least 30% of land, freshwater habitats and ocean globally, while respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.
Obviously, words aren't enough! All the commitments to conservation and protection is just empty rhetoric if not followed by concrete actions. And concrete actions can't happen without money, so it's good that governments committed to eliminate subsidies harmful to nature, and to substantially increase the level of financial resources available for nature conservation from all sources by 2030. Beyond funding though, countries across the world will need to draw up plans for how they are going to conserve 30% of their territory and reverse biodiversity loss by 203.
So this is a great start, but action is needed to make these grand ideas into reality, and action needs to start now.
Links:
The Guardian Newspaper's Comment on COP15.
The Guardian Newspaper's Summary of What Was Agreed at COP15.
Five key Takeaways from COP15 (BBC website).
World Wide Fund for Nature's Press Release about the Kunming Montreal Agreement.
The full set of documents relating to COP15.
We need to do so much to maintain biodiversity. I've been reading more Barry Lopez, who was a prophet for such ideas.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jeff, I've never read anything by Barry Lopez, I'll need to look out some of his books!
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