Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) is an outcome of the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference. Its tentative title had been the "Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework".[1] The GBF was adopted by the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on 19 December 2022.[2] It has been promoted as a "Paris Agreement for Nature".[3] It is one of a handful of agreements under the auspices of the CBD, and it is the most significant to date. It has been hailed as a "huge, historic moment" and a "major win for our planet and for all of humanity."[4]

UN Secretary General António Guterres speaking at the 2022 biodiversity conference in Montreal which led to this treaty
The moment when adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was announced on December 19, 2022

The Framework is named after two cities, Kunming, which was scheduled to be the host city for COP15 in October 2020 but postponed and subsequently relinquished the hosting duties due to China's COVID policy, and Montreal, which is the seat of the Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat and stepped in to host COP15 after Kunming's cancellation.[5]

Background

Human activities around the planet have been causing a crisis of biodiversity loss around the globe. This phenomenon has been known as the Holocene extinction, which is the sixth mass extinction event in the earth's history. The decline in nature threatens the survival of a million species and impacts billions of people.[6]

Due to increasing awareness of the biodiversity crisis, there was pressure from citizens and investors around the world to take action to address the interlinked crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.[4] There is already an international agreement for climate change, the Paris Agreement under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, but until the development of the CBD, there was no similar framework for actions to protect biodiversity to be coordinated internationally.

Goals

The GBF contains 4 global goals ("Kunming-Montreal Global Goals for 2050") and 23 targets ("Kunming-Montreal 2030 Global Targets"). "Target 3" is especially referred to as the "30 by 30" target.[7] It succeeds the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 (including the Aichi Biodiversity Targets).[8] It specifies that countries must stop subsidizing activities that destroy wilderness, such as mining and industrial fishing.[9]

The four goals are: [10]

  1. The integrity, resilience, and connectivity of ecosystems is maintained, enhanced, or restored, substantially increasing the area of natural ecosystems by 2050, and that human-induced extinction of threatened species is halted, and that by 2050, extinction rate and risk of all species are reduced tenfold, and the abundance of native wild species is increased to healthy and resilient levels; and that the genetic diversity within populations of wild and domesticated species,is maintained, safeguarding their adaptive potential.
  2. Biodiversity is sustainably used and managed and nature’s contributions to people, including ecosystem functions and services, are valued, maintained and enhanced, with those currently in decline being restored, supporting the achievement of sustainable development, for the benefit of present and future generations by 2050.
  3. The monetary and non-monetary benefits from the utilization of genetic resources, and digital sequence information on genetic resources, and of traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources, as applicable, are shared fairly and equitably, including, as appropriate with indigenous peoples and local communities, and substantially increased by 2050, while ensuring traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources is appropriately protected, thereby contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, in accordance with internationally agreed access and benefit-sharing instruments
  4. Adequate means of implementation, including financial resources, capacity-building, technical and scientific cooperation, and access to and transfer of technology to fully implement the Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework are secured and equitably accessible to all Parties, especially developing countries, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, as well as countries with economies in transition, progressively closing the biodiversity finance gap of $700 billion per year, and aligning financial flows with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.

Implications

The implementation of the GBF will likely lead to the following effects:

  1. Mandatory nature-related disclosure of data. Companies will be required to disclose their impacts on biodiversity and the natural world.
  2. Increasing nature-positive financial flows. Banks and financial institutions will have to invest in projects that restore nature.
  3. Biodiversity targets will form a mandatory part of corporate governance.
  4. Central banks and their governing institutions will need to address the risks stemming from nature loss as a core part of their mandates.
  5. The GBF will enable international policy alignment in terms of protecting nature.

The GBF is not a legally binding treaty, but it is expected to have a major impact in countries around the world as they endeavor to meet their targets, through the development of new plans and regulations. For example, protected areas will be expanded and subsidies for ecologically destructive activities such as fishing will have to be redirected.

Progress towards national targets will be reviewed at COP16.[11]

See also

References
  1. "Preparations for the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework". Convention on Biological Diversity. Archived from the original on 9 March 2020. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
  2. "Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted at COP15". XinhuaNet. 19 December 2022. Archived from the original on 19 December 2022. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
  3. "Connecting the dots: Climate change and biodiversity interlinkages in Asia-Pacific". UNEP - UN Environment Programme. Archived from the original on 14 September 2022. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
  4. "Adoption of a New Global Biodiversity Framework – Key Takeaways for Global Organizations and Financial Firms". Gibson Dunn. 2023-01-06. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  5. "Biodiversity agreement to protect planet reached at UN conference in Montreal". CBC News. 2022-12-19. Retrieved 2023-07-10.
  6. Environment, U. N. (2022-12-19). "Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework". UNEP - UN Environment Programme. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  7. "Achieving Target 3: Technical support for implementing the 30x30 target". IUCN. 7 December 2022. Archived from the original on 22 November 2022. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
  8. "A new global framework for managing nature through 2030: First detailed draft agreement debuts". Convention on Biological Diversity. Archived from the original on 15 July 2022. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
  9. Irfan, Umair (2023-04-21). "7 ways we've made the Earth better since the last Earth Day". Vox. Retrieved 2023-04-22.
  10. "COP15: Final text of Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework". Convention on Biological Diversity. Retrieved 2023-04-22.
  11. "Biodiversity Day: Protecting humanity's 'life-support system' | UN News". news.un.org. 2023-05-22. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
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