February 8, 2025

The phrase “Cop” is an impenetrable acronym shared by many international summits. This means the “Conference of Parties” to a UN convention. Over the past month we have had the better known Cop27 in Egypt, which is linked to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the less widely covered Cop19 in Panama, which includes parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species . . The numbers refer to how many of each are held.

Cop15, about biodiversity, which will be held from 7 to 19 December in Montreal, Canada, will gather representatives from the 190-odd countries that have joined the Convention on Biological Diversity. And while Cop15 sits somewhere between the two above in terms of name recognition, it may be more important: a once-in-a-decade opportunity to set a new global deal. for nature.

“This is probably one of the most important meetings that man has ever done,” said Alexandre Antonelli, director of science at Kew Gardens. Spotlight. “We have a very narrow window of opportunity to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2030 and reverse its decline by 2050; we may never get that chance again.”

The sense of urgency stems from what the UN has described as “unprecedented” and “accelerating” rates of species extinction today. Nearly a million animals and plants (out of 8.7 million known species) are at risk of extinction within decades. More than half of global GDP ($41.7tr) estimates insurer Swiss Re is dependent on a healthy natural world.

Yet too many political leaders still fail to rise to the challenge, or even show up. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, did not plan to attend Cop15 (despite growing pressure from MPs) and his government failed to deliver on a long list of environmental promises. This includes missing a legislative deadline to set targets for environmental recovery and moving forward with the Retained EU Law Bill, which puts more than a thousand pieces of environmental protection legislation at risk. As a result, the Wildlife Trusts charity warned that Thérèse Coffey, the Environment Secretary, “risks great embarrassment on the world stage”.

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Jennifer Morris, CEO of the Nature Conservancy, noted that there are more climate Cops than biodiversity, and more countries have ratified the former convention than the latter. The US is still not a party to the UN convention on biodiversity because it requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate and the Republican party has long opposed it. Joe Biden, the Democratic president, committed the US through an executive order to protect 30 percent of the world’s land and oceans by 2030, which will give strength to those fighting for the same 30 × 30 target of Cop15, but there is no absolute US The force behind the process does not help its strength.

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For these reasons Cop15 will be the most important summit that many have never heard of. Doing so should be on the agenda of every policymaker. Here are five challenges that those who will be showing up in Montreal this December will have to face.

Targets should be ambitious but fair

Clear, measurable targets are key, Morris suggests. “Since 2015 governments have been legally bound by the Paris Agreement to serve as a collective climate guiding star. The public and private sectors have rallied around the 1.5°C goal, and the targets of emission reductions that came out of Paris are fairly straightforward to understand.The Convention on Biological Diversity, meanwhile, has yet to have a ‘Paris moment’.

The proposed framework adopted by Cop15 consists of 21 targets and ten “milestones” to be achieved by 2030. Its title is the 30 × 30 target for the protection of 30 percent of land and sea by 2030. As Antonelli points out, however, the nuance must also be taken in its meaning, “so that resources go to protect the most biologically important areas, rather than the cheapest”, and to prioritize quality over of the number of protected areas. For an example, he pointed to recent research at Kew in Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot where about 10 percent of the land has been designated as protected and which would benefit more from expanding monitoring capacity and training, rather than only expanding the protected area.

Nations must own their promises

Part of the reason past biodiversity goals have failed is that there hasn’t been enough pressure on individual countries or leaders to uphold commitments. Li Shuo, Greenpeace East Asia’s senior policy adviser, told reporters that the process could take inspiration from the Paris Agreement, which includes “established rules to facilitate the implementation” of national targets.

Businesses need clear regulation

Charmian Love, director of advocacy at Natura & Co (which owns the cosmetics company Body Shop), argued at a press event that there should be mandatory requirements for all businesses and financial institutions to check and reveal their impact on the environment. Dealing with subsidies for polluting industries and agreeing on a clear global goal for environmental protection will help create the kind of level playing field that businesses want.

Financing should be sought now, not later

Paying scientists to monitor species populations and rangers to patrol protected areas takes money, but failing to act now will only make future action more expensive. According to a 2021 report by the Natural History Museum, delaying action for ten years would double the funding needed to stop the decline.

Local and indigenous rights also need protection

As ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer reminded me earlier this year, areas managed by indigenous peoples often have more biodiversity than those owned by the state – yet new protection targets risk close the people who ensure that the land remains worthy of protection. “A lot of conservation in the West is based on the separation of people and nature,” he told me, “while an indigenous worldview says that people are not just consumers – we can be partners which is the creator of biodiversity and abundance if we do it. that’s right.”

[See also: On the eradication of species]

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