Project Syndicate - OpEd

October 20, 2021
To lead our region toward recovery, resilience, and long-term sustainable development, ASEAN member states should commit to the 30x30 plan to protect nature. This initiative, which aims to conserve 30% of Earth’s lands and oceans by 2030, is a key element of the proposed global biodiversity framework, due to be finalized by 196 countries later this year, and is being championed by the High Ambition Coalition (HAC) of Nature and People. More than 70 countries have signed on to the HAC, but Cambodia is the only ASEAN member state among them.

Southeast Asia comprises just 3% of Earth’s land mass, but it contains almost 20% of the world’s biodiversity. More than 2,000 species have been discovered in the ASEAN region over the past 20 years, and three member states – Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines – are considered “mega-diverse” countries, with a variety of species akin to that of the Amazon rainforest and the Congo Basin. The region contains around 60% of the world’s tropical peatlands and has the world’s most extensive and diverse coral reefs, accounting for 28% of the global total. The Coral Triangle is a global hub of marine biodiversity.

Read More

China Dialogue

October 19, 2021
The first session of the most important global biodiversity meeting in a decade was held in Kunming between 11 and 15 October, in an in-person and online hybrid format. 

The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) launched a new stage in talks towards a global deal for nature – known as the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. China, as host nation, is ushering the CBD towards a roadmap for biodiversity conservation for the coming decade and beyond. Delegates to the talks were in agreement: the Aichi targets set in 2010 have been missed, but Kunming cannot be allowed to fail.

The Covid-19 pandemic has hampered progress towards the post-2020 framework, with proceedings delayed or forced online. At meetings of two subsidiary bodies to the CBD in May and June, network issues excluded most African nations from online discussions, leading them to request some matters be renegotiated in January next year. 

Read More

Canada’s National Observer

October 15, 2021

In the run-up to the UN’s crucial climate conference at month’s end, global leaders have laid the foundation for an international framework to protect nature and halt the collapse of biodiversity worldwide while also curbing global warming and protecting human health.

More than 100 nations committed to the Kunming Declaration on Wednesday, a promise to put the natural world on a path to recovery by 2030.

The world is in a dire situation, facing an era of unprecedented species extinction, said COP15 president and China’s Environment Minister Huang Runqui.

As many as a million species of animals and plants are at peril in coming decades, according to a UN report.

The fate of the natural world and humanity are intertwined, Huang said.

“Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation pose major risks to human survival and sustainable development.”

Read More

EuroNews

October 14, 2021
Around 195 countries signed a pledge on Wednesday to come up with an “ambitious and transformative” plan to prevent our planet from losing its biodiversity.

Meeting as part of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, also known as COP15, they took on what has been called the defining challenge of this decade.

Named after the city in China where this conference is taking place, the Kunming Declaration signals a change in momentum. It is hoped that this first part of the summit will allow countries to come up with an agreement similar to the Paris Accords - but for the protection of biodiversity rather than climate change.

That agreement is expected to be finalised at the second half of the conference next year.

Read More

The New York Times

October 14, 2021

As 20,000 government leaders, journalists, activists and celebrities from around the world prepare to descend on Glasgow for a crucial climate summit starting late this month, another high-level international environmental meeting got started this week. The problem it seeks to tackle: A rapid collapse of species and systems that collectively sustain life on earth.

The stakes at the two meetings are equally high, many leading scientists say, but the biodiversity crisis has received far less attention.

“If the global community continues to see it as a side event, and they continue thinking that climate change is now the thing to really listen to, by the time they wake up on biodiversity it might be too late,” said Francis Ogwal, one of the leaders of the working group charged with shaping an agreement among nations.

Read More

Campaign For Nature

October 13, 2021
At the much-anticipated virtual opening of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Chinese President Xi, heads of state and ministers from around the world came together to stress the critical importance of conservation and the protection of Indigenous Peoples and local communities who safeguard nature.  

The meeting, which will be followed by meetings in Geneva and Kunming, China next year, underlined growing ambition to change our relationship with nature. It indicated an urgency to agree upon a transformative global vision and commit the financial commitments necessary to champion the critical infrastructure, which are lagging behind. 

Read More

Reuters

October 8, 2021
Global leaders will gather virtually next week to discuss protecting nature across the planet and experts say there's no time to lose. Animal and plant species are going extinct at a rate not seen in 10 million years.

The losses are accelerating, scientists say, thanks largely to climate change, deforestation, pollution, overfishing and urban development. To limit the loss, the United Nations has urged countries to commit to conserving 30% of their land – almost double the area now under some form of protection.

About 70 countries have committed to the target, which would include about a third of the world's land animals and plants, according to the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People.

China begins hosting the U.N. Conference on Biodiversity, known as COP15, in the city of Kunming on Monday, with most discussions taking place online because of COVID restrictions. A second round will be held next year.

Read More

Xinhuanet

October 8, 2021
The upcoming United Nations (UN) biodiversity conference to be held in the Chinese city of Kunming will be essential in setting the blueprint for fixing the world's biodiversity crisis in the next "decisive decade," a U.S. expert has said.

James Roth, senior vice president for global policy and government affairs at Conservation International (CI), a non-profit international organization based in the United States with a mission to promote global biodiversity and the well-being of humanity, said this in an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday.

The first part of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, known as COP15, is set to kick off on Monday both online and in person. The meeting will review the "post-2020 global biodiversity framework" to draw a blueprint for biodiversity conservation in the future.

Read More

Riff Reporter

October 8, 2021
One year late, almost 200 countries will start the final spurt of their negotiations on the future of nature and biodiversity at the 15th World Biodiversity Summit in Kunming, China, starting October 11th. The most important goal is to pass a new agreement to protect the natural foundations of life on earth. This is to stop the greatest extinction of species in human history and bring the use of nature on a sustainable and just path.

The Kunming Agreement is just as important in the fight against the global crisis in nature as the Paris Climate Agreement is in the fight against global warming. The final round of negotiations and adoption is not planned until the second part of the summit in spring. The three-day opening session could, however, bring important preliminary decisions about how ambitious the states are to tackle the fight against the planet's ecological crisis. The eyes are mainly on host China. Insiders think surprises are possible.

There will be no shortage of big words at the opening conference for the first part of the World Biodiversity Conference in Kunming. The Chinese government as host, the United Nations as host and the representatives of the almost 200 states party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), who are only virtually connected, will not miss the dramatic state of nature on our planet and its improvement Prospect to face.

Read More

rfi

October 7, 2021
The fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) is scheduled to open in Kunming, China next Monday. The 5-day online meeting will adopt a global biodiversity protection action plan for the next ten years.

Affected by the new crown epidemic, the conference in Kunming has been postponed many times. The meeting was held at a time when all parties were preparing for the 26th meeting of the United Nations Climate Conference to be held in Glasgow next month. One of the two co-chairs of the convention working group, Basile van Havre, said in an online press conference on Wednesday. The opening of the conference next Monday will be an “important stage” in the negotiation of the convention. Beijing will also organize an online ministerial summit from October 12 to 13, when “98 ministers from 94 countries” will participate. A "Kunming Declaration" will be presented. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of the Convention, expressed to AFP that he hopes that the declaration will further emphasize and recognize the importance of biodiversity to human health and the importance of political decision-making, and provide a basis for taking necessary global actions.

Read More

NDTV

October 7, 2021
Just weeks before the crucial COP26 climate conference, another global UN summit -- this one tasked with reversing the destruction of nature -- officially kicks off next week in Kunming, China.

Focusing on biodiversity, COP15 is less well known than its sister climate summit but deals with issues that are no less vital to the health of the planet, such as fighting pollution, protecting ecosystems and preventing mass extinction.

The online session beginning on Monday will be followed by a face-to-face gathering in late April, where a final pact for nature will be hammered out.

Who is involved?

Discussions at the COP15 are grounded in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a treaty ratified by 195 countries and the European Union -- but not the United States, the world's biggest historical polluter. Parties meet every two years.

The CBD was drafted in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio. Its stated goals are to preserve the diversity of species on Earth and set guidelines on how to exploit natural resources sustainably and justly.

This year's gathering, originally set for 2020, was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Read More

The New York Times

October 4, 2021
The world lost about 14 percent of its coral reefs in the decade after 2009, mainly because of climate change, according to a sweeping international report on the state of the world’s corals.

The report, issued late Monday, underscores the catastrophic consequences of global warming while also offering some hope that some coral reefs can be saved if humans move quickly to rein in greenhouse gases.

“Coral reefs are the canary in the coal mine telling us how quickly it can go wrong,” said David Obura, one of the report’s editors and chairman of the coral specialist group for the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The 14 percent decline, he said, was cause for deep concern. “In finance, we worry about half-percent declines and half-percent changes in employment and interest rates.”

Read More

The China Environment News

September 26, 2021
According to China Environment News: The 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) will be held in October, 2021, at which representatives from governments, enterprises, NGOs, media and other organizations around the world will gather in Kunming to discuss around the theme of "Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth" and release the "Kunming Declaration". As one of the eight parallel forums of CBD COP15, the NGO Parallel Forum will be held in Kunming from 27 to 28 September 2021. During the forum, All-China Environment Federation (ACEF) will host the theme forum "Environmental NGOs' Role in Biodiversity Mainstreaming" in joint with International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN).

This forum will invite NGOs from different countries in fields of ecological protection, climate change, sustainable consumption, and pollution prevention and control etc. to exchange and form concerted efforts on biodiversity conservation mainstreaming. Practical experiences and outstanding cases will be shared and the "Environmental NGOs' Joint Statement on Biodiversity Conservation Mainstreaming" will also be released by the end of the forum. Relevant institutions such as the government, private sectors, think tanks, and media will also be invited from the perspective of multi-stakeholders. Through incorporating the UN SDGs, all the attendees are expected to discuss and figure out both the opportunities and the challenges for future cooperation on mainstreaming biodiversity conservation as well as building a dialogue and collaboration platform for NGOs and multi-stakeholders.

Read More

Associated Press

September 23, 2021
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced plans Thursday to spend more than $900 million over the next five years to curb global malnutrition, a move to stem the rise in world hunger during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s one of several pledges private donors made this week as world leaders gather in New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly.

On Wednesday, a coalition of nine foundations said they would collectively spend $5 billion by 2030 to protect at least 30% of the planet’s land and sea, known as 30x30. The pledge from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Washington D.C.-based Wyss Foundation and others is believed to be the largest private pledge to protect biodiversity.

One of the donors, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, had already announced on Monday his Bezos Earth Fund would earmark $1 billion to aid with conservation efforts. That commitment is part of the $10 billion Bezos pledged last year to fight climate change following years of criticism about Amazon’s carbon footprint. He stepped down from the company in July.

Read More

Thomson Reuters Foundation

September 17, 2021
Ahead of a global summit to agree a new pact to protect nature that kicks off next month, environmentalists said developing nations will need more funding to implement its goals, branding the $10 billion a year now being sought "woefully inadequate".

Governments are tasked with finalising an agreement to safeguard the planet's plants, animals and ecosystems - similar to the Paris climate accord - at the two-part U.N. biodiversity summit due to conclude next May in the Chinese city of Kunming.

A draft of the biodiversity pact published in July includes a pledge to protect at least 30% of the planet's land and oceans by 2030 - but finding the funds needed to help nature-rich developing countries with conservation is a challenge.

The text calls for "redirecting, repurposing, reforming or eliminating incentives harmful for biodiversity", meaning things like subsidies for fossil fuel production or intensive farming.

It also urges an increase in investment to protect and restore nature from all sources to $200 billion annually, including an additional $10 billion in "international financial flows" for developing nations.

"It is woefully inadequate," said Brian O'Donnell, director of the U.S.-based Campaign for Nature, adding that existing funding from rich to poorer countries was about $10 billion.

Read More