The most important gathering on biodiversity in a decade is kicking off this week in Montreal, where countries will negotiate an ecological deal that could hold equal significance to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.
That's because scientists view biodiversity as one of the chief weapons in
Businesses are increasingly interested in meeting their ESG goals through biodiversity measures—such as
The United Nations-run gathering will have representatives from 191 countries and
COP15 runs from December 7 to December 19. Here's what you need to know:
What's on the Table
Representatives are negotiating the wording of an agreement that lays out four long-term biodiversity goals for 2050 and 23 specific "action targets" to be completed by 2030, according to a news release from the UN on Sunday. The latter group includes eight targets to protect biodiversity, and five geared at making sure humans use nature sustainably and share its bounties and benefits equitably. The remainder are tools and solutions to achieve those targets and goals.
The final text requires unanimous agreement to pass.
Who Will Be There
High-level talks will be handled mainly by environment ministers. The work builds on goals first established by the
The US, which has not ratified the convention, is expected to play a key behind-the-scenes role as a COP15 observer, given recent progress in this area under President Joe Biden. That includes his appointment of a
About 1,400 organizations — including NGOs and businesses from 103 countries — will attend the conference as well. Support from the financial sector is seen as key to successfully implementing an agreement because funding to support biodiversity measures is currently far less than various estimates of what's needed. Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the UN, will help open the event.
Who Won't Be There
World leaders are unlikely to attend but fewer speeches and less pomp and circumstance may be a good thing in terms of getting more technical work done. Canada's
Five Things to Watch
Targets and Goals
2030: The biggest news to come out of COP15 would be a consensus on what's known as the "30 by 30" target. It asks countries to commit to protecting 30% of the world's land and sea by 2030, including key ecosystems around the world.
"It has gained enough support prior to the meeting to stand a high chance of landing. But it isn't a foregone conclusion," says Alistair Purdie, an analyst at clean energy research group BloombergNEF and lead author of a recent
Genetic resource sharing means distributing any benefits — including profit — that come from using genes found in the world's living organisms to create new products. Agriculture is an obvious example: much of the genetic information used to create new, drought-resistant crops comes from plants in the Southern hemisphere but the companies developing them are typically in the north. Medicine would be another example.
2050: An agreed goal to not only halt, but also start to reverse biodiversity loss by 2050 would be meaningful. That would likely mean enhancing the world's natural ecosystems, tackling extinctions, and maintaining genetic diversity among the planet's lifeforms. This could be expressed merely as an aspiration or backed up with numerical targets.
BNEF's report puts the chances of a meaningful deal at fifty-fifty but says, if it happens, COP15 could be as significant as the 2015 Paris Agreement.
'Nature Positive' Language
The idea of stopping and eventually reversing biodiversity loss — a strategy known as "nature positive" — is becoming the new "net zero" in terms of planet-friendly guiding principles for nations and businesses. The concept underpins many proposals in the draft agreement. Target 18, for example, calls for slashing government subsidies and incentives that harm biodiversity by at least $500 billion a year, and ensuring future incentives are at least neutral and increasingly positive.
Business Requirements
To get companies to adopt nature positive practices, businesses and financial institutions could be required to track and disclose their effect on biodiversity. The aim would be to cut negative impacts by at least half by 2030, with a gradual increase toward positive impacts. The trick will be measuring progress, according to Jessica Smith, nature lead at the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative. Unlike emissions, she says, changes to ecosystems aren't tracked a single way. The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures has been making progress on identifying metrics, Smith says, and could lead the way on this. "We need a really robust definition of nature positive," she says.
Biodiversity Finance
Lack of financing was one of the reasons the last biodiversity agreement, struck in 2010, failed to meet its targets. The COP15 framework identifies a global gap of $700 billion a year that would need to be bridged for success. In their report, BNEF analysts note this is "seven times larger than
Significant financial "capacity building" will be needed to free up funds, says Ryan Riordan, research director of the Institute for Sustainable Finance at Canada's Queen's University. "We need to develop the tools, and the methods, and the technology to value this stuff better," he says. "It's really easy for us to take a look at balance sheets and income statements of firms. How do we do that for habitats, or salt marshes, or peat bogs or coral reefs? "
Just as governments need a way to measure nature-positive impacts, the financial sector needs to be able to place a dollar value on biodiversity improvements or avoiding degradation. Some of the solutions being discussed within the financial community include a biodiversity index or
Indigenous Rights
There is a growing recognition of the value indigenous peoples can provide as stewards of biodiversity. The current framework aims to make sure their traditional knowledge guides biodiversity decisions, their consent is given, and their rights are upheld. It also acknowledges that decision-making, and benefits to natural systems, need to be shared equitably among people, cultures and countries.
--With assistance from Natasha White, Eric Roston and Mathieu Dion.
To contact the author of this story:
Danielle Bochove in Toronto at
