The UN Biodiversity Summit in Montreal ended with a global framework agreement to preserve biodiversity. Among other things, 30 percent of the earth's surface is to be placed under protection by 2030, subsidies that are harmful to nature are to be phased out and food waste halved. Although experts welcome the ambitious goals, they believe that vague wording and a lack of sanctions in the event of non-compliance could jeopardize their success.
The United Nations Biodiversity Summit, COP15, took place in Montreal, Canada, from December 7th to 19th. In long and sometimes controversial discussions, representatives of 188 governments negotiated a framework agreement intended to prevent the further decline in biodiversity. Expectations for COP15 were high given the ongoing extinction of species. In the run-up, some even hoped for a “Paris moment” – like when the Paris climate agreement was passed in 2015.
27 Conservation Goals
Does the framework agreement that has been passed actually create such a “Paris moment”? Species protection experts are more divided on this. What is certain, however, is that the summit meeting “had surprisingly great success”, as Katrin Böhning-Gaese from the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center puts it. The adopted framework agreement (“Global Biodiversity Framework”) contains four long-term goals that are to be implemented by 2050 and 23 action goals, compliance with which is scheduled for 2030.
The long-term goals include, for example, stopping the man-made extinction of endangered species and reducing the rate of extinction worldwide to a tenth. "That would still be an order of magnitude higher than the natural extinction rate, but it's the right way to bend the curve of biodiversity loss," says Henrique Pereira from the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research. In addition, all contracting parties, especially the developing countries, should be provided with adequate financial resources to actually be able to implement the goals. These funds are said to come from developed countries, among others, which are expected to increase their payments to at least $30 billion a year by 2030.
Cooperation between nature conservation and business
Another “short-term” goal to be met by 2030: protect at least 30 percent of the world’s land, coasts and oceans. So far, this is only the case for 17 percent of land areas and eight percent of sea areas. In addition, 30 percent of all damaged ecosystems are also to be restored. But the demands are formulated too vaguely, criticizes Böhning-Gaese: "It was not specified how effective protection of the areas would look like and what the concrete goal of renaturation is." also to halve the introduction of invasive species that can pose a threat to native species.
According to Böhning-Gaese, a surprising content of the framework agreement is that "the deep causes that lead to the destruction of biodiversity - the economic and financial system - were addressed with ambitious goals." This includes any subsidies that lead to the loss of biodiversity to reduce by $500 billion annually by 2030 while providing more financial incentives for conservation. In addition, transnational companies should be obliged to always evaluate and disclose the impact of any activity on biological diversity.
Actual implementation remains uncertain
The agreed targets must now be recorded and implemented in a national biodiversity strategy by the contractual partners. However, this is precisely the point at which things can get tricky, because: If the countries miss the goals to which they have committed themselves, they are not threatened with any sanctions. "The agreement has no sharp teeth," summarizes Böhning-Gaese. “This means that the public, such as non-governmental organizations, are of great importance in demanding compliance with the goals. Courts could also play a major role in the future.” Ultimately, the success of the agreed goals can only be measured by how quickly and consistently they are actually implemented by the contractual partners.
Source: UN Environment Programme, Science Media Center