Looking ahead to COP15

By Nicole Clucas, Principal Sustainability Consultant

Now that COP27 has drawn to a close, attention is turning to the Biodiversity Conference, COP15 which takes place in Montreal, Canada (with China as the official host) from 7 – 19 December 2022. The stakes could not be higher. Biodiversity loss is one of the biggest dangers facing humanity, as noted in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2022.

The Conference aims to give biodiversity the same levels of international protection as the climate. Heads of States and Government ministers will need to decide whether to back the commitments in the Post-2020 Global Diversity Framework which commits governments to actions that are designed to protect biodiversity and restore ecosystems. This includes 21 targets for urgent action over the next decade, such as stopping plastic waste discharges, reducing the use of pesticides and ensuring that at least 30% of land and sea areas are protected.

The conference offers hope for real progress, if significant issues that such as finance can be addressed. Developing nations are expected to argue that they need more funding to be able to protect large parts of their land and seas. 

The Post-2020 Framework will be translated into actions, policies and regulations at regional and national levels that will have direct consequences for companies’ operations. Successfully shifting the world to a nature-positive trajectory will require full buy-in from the private sector. While quantifying biodiversity impacts is very complex there are significant gains to be made if companies can embed biodiversity within their decision-making.

The draft of a hoped-for biodiversity deal has yet to be finalized, though division at this stage of a UN negotiation is normal. Whether it will be a “Paris Agreement for Nature”, as campaigners are hoping for, remains to be seen, but countries appear to be taking COP15 seriously and we could end up with a substantive agreement. There are certainly signs that we should be optimistic that there be will more consensus on important biodiversity issues in Canada, than the lack of agreement on substantive issues at COP27.