COP15 summit on biodiversity conservation to take place in December

Photo by: Nastasic / iStock

The COP15 Summit meets every 10 years to develop a plan to conserve the planet’s biodiversity over the next decade. It was based on the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, adopted in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The forthcoming summit was due to take place in China in 2020, but was postponed because of the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The summit will now take place in December 2022 in Montreal, Canada. This will be the first time China will participate in the summit.

The last COP15 summit was held in Japan in 2010. Its goals included halving the loss of natural habitat and expanding nature reserves to 17% of the world’s land area by 2020. However, these plans fell through.

The official text of the new agreement is expected to be signed on 17 December. Delegates are to draw up a plan in line with the convention’s three main objectives — conservation, sustainable use and benefit-sharing of genetic resources. The new agreement — a post-2020 global biodiversity framework — will provisionally include 21 targets, ranging from commitments to control invasive species to rules on the use of synthetic biology.

These are proposals to eliminate plastic litter, reduce pesticide use in agriculture by two-thirds, halve the rate of introduction of invasive species and eliminate environmentally damaging government subsidies. Targets also include reducing the current rate of extinction by 90%, improving the integrity of all ecosystems, valuing nature’s contribution to humanity and providing financial resources to achieve this.

Nevertheless, there is already a circle of disagreement between the notionally global north and south: money, the 30×30 goal (to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030), monitoring and the issue of biopiracy. The 30×30 goal is opposed by southern countries, which are in fact not as rich as those in the north. Southerners believe that the rights of indigenous peoples with a traditional way of life will be violated because of the restrictions associated with the 30×30 goal. In addition, the countries of the south do not have sufficient budgets for a greener economy, and will need external funding to implement the plans.

The importance of implementing biodiversity conservation plans stems from many factors. The most obvious of these is that biodiversity is the backbone of the global economy. For the sake of preserving the balance of nature, humanity will soon have to reduce the rate of global warming, prevent climate change, and preserve and expand the natural zone over as much territory as possible. Unlike climate change, which can be reversed even if it takes thousands of years, the extinction and destruction of ecosystems is likely to be fatal.

How these issues will be resolved and what the COP15 summit will offer the world, we will find out in December.

Cover photo: kjekol / iStock