Paving the Way — Global Biodiversity Framework, Four Goals, 23 Targets for 2030

17 Jan, 2023

A glimpse of the UN Biodiversity Conference CoP 15’s Landmark Agreement

Compiled by Chhavi Tayal, Communications Intern

In a historic moment at the 15^th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity CBD), the convening nations in the auspices of the UN adopted the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF) and paved the way for new opportunities for ‘Ecological Civilisation: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth’, the underlying theme of the Conference.

This GBF replaces the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and associated Aichi Targets meant to guide international efforts on biodiversity conservation till 2020 but were largely missed — 14 Targets were left unachieved, while the other 6 were only partially achieved by the parties to CBD. In alignment with the twenty Aichi targets, India too developed a set of 12 National Biodiversity Targets (NBTs) to conserve biodiversity, and though it performed well implementing the Aichi target of 17 per cent of terrestrial area-based conservation, the other targets couldn’t be fully met. The reason for the failure was mainly attributed to a lack of clearly defined metrics to gauge progress, The new Global Biodiversity Framework therefore stands landmark with the addition of a monitoring framework that proposes a suite of indicators by which the Parties can measure progress towards both national and global targets. This framework consists of a combination of Component and Complementary Indicators that will help countries plan, monitor, report and review their progress towards the new targets.

The Global Biodiversity Framework lists Four Goals and 23 Targets for 2030 intending to protect 30% of Earth’s lands, oceans, coastal areas, inland waters; reducing harmful government subsidies by $500 billion annually; and cut food waste in half in the spirit of biodiversity conservation.

The four overarching global goals of the framework mainly focus on:

Goal A – Enhancing the resilience of all ecosystems, halting the extinction of threatened species and maintaining genetic diversity within populations of wild and domesticated species by 2050.

Goal B – Sustainable use and management of nature’s contribution to people for the benefit of present and future generations by 2050.

Goal C – Protecting traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources, in accordance with internationally agreed access and benefit-sharing instruments.

Goal D – Adequate means of implementation, including financial resources, capacity-building, technical and scientific cooperation, and access to and transfer of technology for all countries to fully implement the framework and the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.

The GBF laid out 23 Targets to guide action for nature till 2030 by mainly focusing on the following 3 areas:

• Reducing Threats to Biodiversity – by halting biodiversity loss while respecting indigenous peoples’ rights; effective restoration of at least 30% of terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine degraded areas; mapping linkages between sustainable use of these areas and their conservation outcomes; saving endangered species through in situ and ex situ conservation; protecting wild species; reducing rates of introduction of alien species; tackling pollution; and minimising impact of climate change and ocean acidification via nature-based solutions.
• Meeting Human Requirements through Sustainable Use – by ensuring that use of wild species benefits humans especially those most dependent on biodiversity; enhancing resilience and productivity of ecosystems; handling nature’s contribution through regulation of air, water and climate; increasing quality and access of green and blue spaces in densely populated areas; ensuring equal sharing of benefits of genetic resources.
• Tools and Solutions for Implementation and Mainstreaming – by integrating biodiversity into policy making; setting up legal perils for businesses that negatively impact biodiversity; reducing global footprint of consumption; taking biosecurity measures; removing harmful incentives; increasing biodiversity finance; strengthening technical cooperation; sharing knowledge; ensuring equal representation in decision making, and a gender responsive approach by recognising women’s rights and access to natural resources.

Among such measures to aid the quest for a sustainable future, finance formed the highlight of the CoP — The Global Environment Facility was requested to establish a Special Trust Fund to support the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework (“GBF Fund”). The fund would complement existing support and scale up financing to ensure the timely implementation of the GBF with adequate, predictable and timely flow of funds. Delegates of the CoP also agreed to establish within the GBF, a multilateral fund for the equitable sharing of benefits between providers and users of DSI (A technology where companies can use nucleotide sequences of genetic resources using genetic engineering, without needing to physically access resources from their country of origin), to be finalized at COP16 in Turkey in 2024.

In tandem with this spirit, a new Partnership to support the countries of the Global South in rapidly implementing their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans – The NBSAP Accelerator Partnership was launched at the conference in Montreal and Germany pledged to support the Partnership in an initial start-up phase with a total of 29 million euros. With a contribution of 9 million euros, the BMZ will be involved in conservation measures in selected developing countries. These packages aim at the national implementation of the updated biodiversity strategies, knowledge transfer and South-South exchange, and involve indigenous peoples and local communities. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Germany, had already pledged at the UN General Assembly in September 2022 that Germany would make 1.5 billion euros available for international biodiversity financing from 2025, increasing the budget for international climate protection by at least six billion euros per year by 2025. This sends an important signal for the protection of forests and other endangered ecosystems worldwide and for an ambitious outcome of the milestone CoP15.

Amongst the building nexus for addressing triple planetary crisis - climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, the Global Biodiversity Framework comes as a ray of hope to people all around the world to envision, build capacity and act effectively in the spirit of ecological civilisation — a bright shared future for all life on earth.

Sources:

• COP15: Nations Adopt Four Goals, 23 Targets for 2030 In Landmark UN Biodiversity Agreement | Convention on Biological Diversity (cbd.int)
• 221219-CBD-PressRelease-COP15-Final_0.pdf
• RECOMMENDATION ADOPTED BY THE WORKING GROUP ON THE POST-2020 GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY FRAMEWORK (cbd.int)
• COP15 ends with landmark biodiversity agreement (unep.org)
• The Global Biodiversity Framework's "30x30" Target: Catchy slogan or effective conservation goal? | International Institute for Sustainable Development (iisd.org)
• Mechanisms for planning, monitoring, reporting and review (cbd.int)
• Montreal moment for nature | Press release | BMUV
• Germany is increasing its international financing for biodiversity to 1.5 billion euros per year by 2025 | BMZ
• The NBSAP Accelerator Partnership, accelerating the implementation of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (unep.org)