COP15, an historical moment 

The United Nations Conference on Biodiversity, CBD-COP 15, concluded on Monday December 19 in Montreal, with the historical adoption of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF). The KM-GBF provides guidance for decision makers and the whole-of-society to ensure the shared vision of living in harmony with nature by 2050, with 4 long term goals.

The 196 member States of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have committed themselves to achieving four objectives and 23 action targets by 2030, several of which need to be implemented as a matter of urgency:

– Restore at least 30% of degraded ecosystems (Target 2);
– Protect at least 30% of terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine areas through effectively conserved and equitably managed protected areas (Target 3);

– Halt the human-caused extinction of endangered species, and promote their conservation and recovery (target 4);

– Halve the global risk from pesticides and aim to eliminate plastic pollution (Target 7);

– Reduce the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on biodiversity and deploy Nature-based solutions (Target 8);

– Identify by 2025 and eliminate subsidies harmful to biodiversity (Target 18);

– Mobilize at least $200 billion a year in domestic and international funding, from both public and private sources, for biodiversity (Target 19);

– Deploy more equitable, inclusive and multilateral governance (targets 21 to 23).
Provisions adopted for implementation

This global framework is accompanied by provisions describing mechanisms for planning, monitoring, capacity-building for technical and scientific cooperation, and resource mobilization, all of which should contribute to its operationalization. The adoption of these provisions is an important step forward, their absence having largely contributed to the failure to achieve the Aïchi targets set in 2010 at CBD COP 10.

Access the GBF here:
https://www.cbd.int/doc/decisions/cop-15/cop-15-dec-04-en.pdf