- The summit convenes governments, organizations and the private sector to agree on a new post-2020 global biodiversity framework.
- The commitments agreed at COP 15 will guide global actions and initiatives to ensure that, by 2050, the shared will to live in harmony with nature is fulfilled.
- Several targets of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework directly and indirectly involve the private sector, such as the one that addresses how to assess the impacts and independence of biodiversity.
- The Biodiversity Foundation will present the Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative at the annual meeting of the Global Business and Biodiversity Alliance of the CBD Secretariat, which will be held at COP 15.
December 7, 2022- The second part of the United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity (COP 15) kicks off today in Montreal (Canada), which will take place between December 7 and 19, 2022, after a virtual prelude that took place last year. The summit convenes governments, organizations and the private sector to agree on a new post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. An ambitious plan to transform society’s relationship with biodiversity and ensure that, by 2050, the shared vision of living in harmony with nature is fulfilled. China holds the official presidency of the conference, organized by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a 1992 international treaty that aims to conserve biological diversity and promote its sustainability, as well as improve the fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from the use of genetic resources. The first installment of COP 15 was held virtually between October 11 and 15, 2021 with official headquarters in the Chinese city of Kunming. During this meeting, the Kunming Declaration was approved, by which the participating governments assumed various commitments such as “strengthening national environmental laws and their compliance to protect biodiversity” or “the reform or elimination of subsidies that are harmful to biodiversity”. China also committed to the creation of a fund of 1,500 million yuan (about 200 million euros) for the conservation of biodiversity in developing countries. The main objective of the summit this year is to finalize the negotiation and adoption of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. The first draft of this document was presented in July 2021 and arrives at this meeting after months of work by different international actors. The draft text from which the negotiations will be based contains 21 goals for 2030, among which are: the conservation of at least 30% of the planet’s terrestrial and marine areas, the reduction by 50% of the rate of introduction of invasive alien species, or the reform or elimination of incentives harmful to biodiversity by at least 500,000 million dollars a year. It also includes targets to reduce pollution generated by plastics, fertilizers and pesticides and to increase financing for developing countries. In addition, the Conference will discuss the implementation of CBD protocols that address the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits of biodiversity use, and the safe transport, handling and labelling of living modified organisms. On the other hand, the participation of the private sector in this meeting is important because several of the goals directly and indirectly involve this sector, such as the one that addresses how to assess the impacts and independence of nature, the goal on how to produce in a cleaner and more sustainable way, and the one that addresses how to eliminate harmful incentives for biodiversity. public-private connections and the financing of the green-blue economy and the circular economy.
THE ROLE OF BUSINESS IN THE POST-2020 GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY FRAMEWORK
The participation of companies in COP 15 is essential to push the agenda in a direction that fits the expectations, experiences and realities of companies, and that is ambitious enough to reach the level of action that the biodiversity crisis demands. The new framework aims to include objectives, targets and policy directions for the next three decades, which will help set the direction of business action and guide governments in adopting policies. It will translate into actions, policies and regulations at the regional and national levels that will have direct consequences on private sector operations. Key elements of the agreement will impact how companies operate and how they can transform their business models. The agreement has the potential to unlock new business opportunities and will help create a level playing field and a stable operating environment for companies globally. Among the opportunities for action arising from the new framework for the private sector are the identification of dependencies and impacts; working with supply chains or the evolution of financial instruments to invest in green.
THE BIODIVERSITY FOUNDATION’S PARTICIPATION IN COP 15
It is vitally important to integrate biodiversity into all sectors in order to reverse the process of natural capital loss. For this reason, the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) coordinates the Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative (IEEB), as a response to Spain’s commitments acquired by the CBD firm related to the involvement of the private sector. The IEEB is a collaboration platform that facilitates a framework for cooperation between the business sector, the financial sector, academia, the third sector and the Public Administration, joining forces for the improvement and maintenance of biodiversity and natural capital in Spain. It also seeks to integrate the private business sector in the implementation of the objectives of the CBD and international and national plans and strategies for biodiversity conservation. The initiative is also a channel through which entities can send their needs, proposals and actions to national public institutions and the CBD Secretariat. The IEEB is part of the European Business and Biodiversity Platform, the Global Business and Biodiversity Alliance of the CBD Secretariat and the Natural Capital Coalition (a global platform to support the development of methods for valuing natural and social capital in companies). As a member of the Global Business and Biodiversity Alliance of the CBD Secretariat, the director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Elena Pita, will participate in the annual meeting, which will take place on December 14 within the framework of COP 15, where she will present the update of the Initiative, which has been endowed with greater ambition to respond with technical rigor to the new legislation. to business demands and international trends, favouring greater leadership among the Spanish business sector, to advance in the conservation of biodiversity and natural capital. The objectives of this renewed IEEB respond to MITECO’s biodiversity conservation initiatives, and to the commitments made in the CBD. The changes translate, on the one hand, into a new governance model marked by the redefinition of the commitments of the IEEB Biodiversity Pact and, on the other hand, the creation of a Community of Practice that accommodates both large and small companies and that responds to the challenge of integrating biodiversity into the business model and allows the imperatives of the ecological transition to be transferred.
