The UN Biodiversity Conference or COP15 starts on 7 December in Montreal at a crucial time for the planet, with governments from around the world coming together to try to agree a new set of goals for nature for the next decade.

We are facing a triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. All these issues are interlinked, as are their solutions. Land and marine ecosystems – forests, peat bogs, the ocean – absorb more than 50 per cent of man-made carbon emissions, and are vital to meeting the Paris Agreement goals. Biodiversity also plays a huge role in climate change adaptation. Nature-based solutions such as coral reefs and mangrove forests can protect coastal communities from storms, flooding and erosion.

It’s a vicious circle: climate change accelerates biodiversity loss, which in turn undermines nature’s ability to both regulate and sequester emissions, which accelerates climate change even faster.

The 1992 Earth Summit in Brazil saw the three Rio Conventions set up: one on biodiversity, one on desertification and one on climate change. Each of these conventions has a COP – or Conference of the Parties – which sees signatory governments come together regularly to speed up action in implementing these agreements.

So, while COP27, which took place last month, focuses on the climate, COP15 focuses on nature and the preservation of our natural world. COP27 was the first climate COP that acknowledged “nature-based solutions” in a cover decision, highlighting the fact the two issues are interconnected. Indeed, without protecting and restoring our natural world, none of the triple planetary crises can be solved, which is why COP15 is so important. While the biodiversity COP ordinarily takes place every two years, this year is particularly important due to a new set of goals that needs to be agreed on – goals that are updated every ten years. At COP10 in Nagoya, Japan in 2010, governments pledged that by 2020, natural habitat loss would be halved and 17 per cent of the world’s surface would be turned over to nature reserves – neither of those targets have been met.

This year governments are aiming to sign off targets under the convention’s three aims: conservation, sustainable use and sharing the benefits of genetic resources. Other issues centre around finance and the aim of protecting 30 per cent of land and sea by 2030.

Crunch Time

It has never been more vital to reach agreement. The planet is experiencing its largest loss of life since the dinosaurs, with humanity responsible for the loss of 83 per cent of all wild mammals and half of all plants, and one million plant and animal species are now threatened with extinction. Last month, the WWF and Zoological Society of London’s Living Planet Report revealed that Earth’s wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 69 per cent in just under 50 years.

Without the biodiversity we often take for granted, modern life as we know it would be impossible. Our existence relies on having clean air, food and a habitable climate, all of which are regulated by the natural world. More than half of global GDP – equal to $41.7 trillion – is reliant on healthy ecosystems, according to the insurance group Swiss Re.

The stakes in Montreal are high, with 21 draft targets to be negotiated. These include proposals to reduce pesticide use by two-thirds, halve the rate of invasive species introduction and eliminate billions of dollars of environmental government subsidies.

The goals also include reducing the current rate of extinctions by 90 per cent, enhancing the integrity of all ecosystems, valuing nature’s contribution to humanity and providing the financial resources to achieve this vision.

The summit’s final text – the post-2020 global biodiversity framework – will include more than 20 targets that focus on everything from invasive species to synthetic biology.

All sessions at COP15 will be streamed live at cbd.int/live and the main schedule is also available.
Biodiversity Day took place at COP27 on 16 November and featured a number of events that focused on the ocean and marine ecosystems. You can watch the events at the Global Action Hub here.