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In December 2022 about two hundred states around the world agreed to mobilise $200 billion per year by 2030 for biodiversity from all sources, including $30 billion through international finance. The EU-27 is the biggest international donor; it has even pledged to double its share of biodiversity funding to live up to the commitments.
Background
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted in December 2022 at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (the COP-15) aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. The historic Global Biodiversity Framework, GBF unites 196 countries agreed on a roadmap to global biodiversity.
More in: https://www.cbd.int/article/kmgbf-two-years-2024
COP15 is an international biodiversity conference held under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). COP15 ran from 7 to 19 December 2022 in Montreal, Canada. A key outcome of COP15 was the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. This set out global goals to address ongoing biodiversity loss. Chaired by China and hosted by Canada, COP 15 resulted in the adoption of the world-wide biodiversity’s framework.
Note. A brief summary of the conference outcomes and the global efforts on biodiversity preservation in: https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/cop15-global-biodiversity-framework/
Although the GBF is not legally binding, it requires countries to monitor and report on their progress against the GBF’s goals and targets every five years or earlier.
The CBD’s four goals include: a) ecosystem maintenance and restoring, b) rational use and management of biodiversity, c) sharing data on the financial and non-financial benefits of using genetic resources, as well as digital sequence data on genetic resources; and d) adequate means of implementation, including financial resources, capacity building, technical and scientific cooperation, as well as access to and transfer of technology to fully implement the global biodiversity framework. The goals shall be secured and equitably accessible to all parties of this agreement, especially developing countries.
Reference to: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/four-goals-kunming-montreal-global-biodiversity-guillen-orantes
The European view on financial resources
In recent Commission’s press-release, it notes that global cooperation on biodiversity is important. Declining biodiversity is a global problem: i.e. ecosystems are degrading everywhere which worsens the impact of climate change and magnifies the effects of droughts and floods. This in turn destroys people’s livelihoods, especially the most vulnerable in society: already today 40% of the global population is negatively affected by land degradation.
Reference to: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/da/speech_25_621
The global community is already making progress and delivering concrete results: e.g. 124 countries have aligned their national targets to the global biodiversity framework. It agreed to put indigenous people and local communities, as some of the most important custodians of biodiversity at the centre of world-wide efforts by establishing a global network to improve scientific and technical cooperation to halt biodiversity loss. The new Cali Fund launched these days at COP-16 in Rome will share financial benefits with local and indigenous communities when using genetic materials sourced from natural ecosystems.
The main issue presently is to organize” the financial landscape after 2030: however, the contentious discussions are not about resource’s mobilization or the amount of money, noted Commissioner Jessika Roswall; it is about choosing the most efficient way to disburse the money, and how as many sources and donors as possible can be invited to contribute.
She noted that “if the political will is there, we should be able to bridge the divide’ we are facing a tough international context, so the stakes are high”.
It is important that the present COP-16 resume discussions on efforts in finding plausible agreement on an open process that can lead to an appropriate, coherent and effective financial architecture beyond 2030. The momentum has to be maintained, she continued, to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework, as it matters more than ever in the current geopolitical climate. The EU will work hard to find solutions and continue implementing this historic agreement until 2030 and beyond.