Global Biodiversity Framework

What’s the news?

The United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) ended in Montreal, Canada with a landmark agreement to guide global action on nature through to 2030.
Chaired by China and hosted by Canada, COP 15 resulted in the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

About COP15

From December 7-19 in Montreal, Canada, 196 governments will meet to strike a landmark agreement to guide global actions on biodiversity. The framework will need to lay out an ambitious plan that addresses the key drivers of nature loss and puts us on the path to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 and ensure that by 2050, the shared vision of living in harmony with nature is fulfilled.

About Global Biodiversity Framework

The GBF aims to address biodiversity loss, restore ecosystems and protect indigenous rights.
The plan includes concrete measures to halt and reverse nature loss, including putting 30% of the planet and 30% of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030.
The GBF consists of four overarching global goals to protect nature, including:

Halting human-induced extinction of threatened species and reducing the rate of extinction of all species tenfold by 2050.

Sustainable use and management of biodiversity to ensure that nature’s contributions to people are valued, maintained and enhanced.

Fair sharing of the benefits from the utilization of genetic resources and digital sequence information on genetic resources.

Adequate means of implementing the GBF be accessible to all Parties, particularly Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States.

The GBF also features 23 targets to achieve by 2030, including

Effective conservation and management of at least 30% of the world’s land, coastal areas and oceans. Currently, 17% of land and 8% of marine areas are under protection.

Reduce to near zero the loss of areas of high biodiversity importance and high ecological integrity.

Phasing out or reforming subsidies that harm biodiversity by at least $500 billion per year, while scaling up positive incentives for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.

Mobilizing at least $200 billion per year from public and private sources for biodiversity-related funding.

Raising international financial flows from developed to developing countries to at least US$ 30 billion per year.

Requiring transnational companies and financial institutions to monitor, assess, and transparently disclose risks and impacts on biodiversity through their operations, portfolios, supply and value chains.

Finance at the core

Finance played a key role at COP15, with discussions centring on how much money developed countries will send to developing countries to address biodiversity loss.
It was proposed that the Global Environment Facility set up a Special Trust Fund – the GBF Fund – to support the implementation of the GBF, in order to ensure an adequate, predictable and timely flow of funds.

Need for Global Biodiversity Framework

Climate change coupled with habitat loss, pollution and development have hammered the world’s biodiversity, with one estimate in 2019 warning that a million plant and animal species face extinction within decades — a rate of loss 1,000 times greater than expected.
Humans use about 50,000 wild species routinely, and 1 out of 5 people of the world’s 8 billion population depend on those species for food and income.
Of the nearly 200 countries assembled, five are considered to be among the world’s most biodiverse nations — measured in the number of unique species. Brazil, China, Indonesia, Mexico, and Colombia boast more than 131,000 plant species, around 6,000 birds, and nearly 3,000 mammals which is more than a third of all the world’s flowering plants, and more than half of all bird and mammal species on Earth.

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