BIODIVERSITY ACTION UNDER THREAT?

On 18th August 2021, the Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) announced that the Conference of the Parties (COP) 15 which was meant to take place in October 2020 (then October 2021 in Kunming, China), has now been moved to 2022. 

What is COP15 and how does it fit with its more prestigious homonym COP26? 

This COP15, under the UN Convention for Biodiversity, is less well-known than its cousin COP26 to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was a broader agenda. Think of Sustainable Development Goals for COP26 (SDGs) versus Sustaining Life on Earth for COP15 (on Land, SDG 15, and below Water, SDG 14).  

The Biodiversity COP’s vision is to live in Harmony with Nature, where “By 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people.”4 

Whilst COP26 was originally scheduled to take place from 9-19 November 2020, in Glasgow, UK, got moved by a year and is still set to take place in November 2021, the format for COP15 is slightly different. It was recently announced that the meeting will be split into 2: an online forum taking place in October 2021, and an in-person event in April – May 2022 in Kunming, China. 

Why is one taking place as planned and not the other? 

For one, because of the importance of this meeting as the Convention on Biological Diversity is meant to announce the next decade worth of Strategic Plan for the health of biodiversity on the planet, not only for the biodiversity-related conventions, but for the entire United Nations system and all partners involved in biodiversity management and policy development. The last set of objectives (aka Aichi Targets or Nagoya Protocol, named after Nagoya’s prefecture in Japan that hosted COP10 in 2010), were framing the overarching international framework from 2011 to 2020; and were then translated into national biodiversity strategies and action plans.  

Is this a sign that there is a clear lack of agreement on the roadmap at this crucial time for species extinction, or a reflection of some geopolitical tensions with the convention set to take place in China? 

This move on the part of the UN, like any such large decision, belies political motivations and priorities held by member countries. Some may interpret this delay to indicate a lack of commitment to biodiversity issues, a complaint made of most governments regarding their general commitment to climate action and sustainability. Activists and advocates emphasise the negative consequences of this delay: “Just because (the conference) is delayed does not mean that biodiversity loss is delayed. We need to take urgent and immediate actions to halt the loss of nature”5. On the other hand, officials from the Convention for Biological Diversity justify the delay by the importance of in-person negotiations: “There’s a broad consensus among the parties that in-person meetings were needed to finalise the negotiations”6.   

However, could this delay, reportedly initiated by the UN, also reflect political tensions between China and other major players on the global stage? Tensions have risen regarding China’s alleged lack of transparency regarding the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of infections in the country, and their lack of cooperation with investigations into the origins of the virus. Specifically, China has publicly disagreed and not cooperated with the US intelligence investigation into the origins of the virus in Wuhan province, asserting that the investigation is politicisation of the issue by the US7. With tensions running high between these two big powers, could a potential unwillingness to cooperate in the current political climate be another reason that the COP15 was delayed?