Biodiversity: Getting away from business as usual for an ambitious agreement at COP15 in China
“In the past 40 years, over 60% of wildlife has disappeared from the planet”, pointed out Pascal Canfin, who was still Director General of WWF France at the time. Scientific assessments show that the loss of biodiversity is increasing and that the pressures threatening it – especially of human origin – are not decreasing. Yet “our socioeconomic and cultural systems, livelihoods and quality of life are dependent on it”, explained Xing Qu, Deputy Director-General of UNESCO.
196 States, beginning to recognise this threat, adopted the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) during the Rio Summit in 1992. Since then, the international community has gathered every two years during a Conference of Parties (COP) to monitor the commitments made to achieve the objectives set out in the convention. The next date: COP15, which will be held in China in October 2020.
To contribute to the definition of an ambitious and transformative agreement by the end of 2020, the Rendez-vous de l’Expertise meetings on 15 February 2019 gathered a high-level panel on a crucial question: Under what conditions can COP15 be a success?
Creating momentum involving all actors
A first priority by October 2020: put the theme of biodiversity centre stage, as has been done for the climate. A long process of negotiations has just started with a view to COP15. A number of intermediate stages are planned – starting with the 7th plenary meeting of IPBESl, the “biodiversity IPCC”, from 29 April to 4 May 2019 at UNESCO, in Paris.
Scientists, NGOs from all sectors, local communities and indigenous peoples… Everyone has a role to play in widely mobilising governments, cities and sub-national authorities, companies and financial actors and ensuring they all commit in 2020. “We need everyone”, points out Jérémie Pellet, Chief Executive Officer of Expertise France.
Defining clear roadmaps
In 2010, the Nagoya Summit was a major step forward : a paradigm shift involving mainstreaming biodiversity issues into economic and technical practices. Yet it has had limited tangible impacts and almost none of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets set in 2010 will be achieved.
To get things moving, it is important to “go further than the conventions themselves”, states Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation (ECF) and former French climate change ambassador. All the stakeholders must not only agree on concrete, quantified and dated objectives, but also define common methodologies and clear roadmaps adapted to everyone’s responsibilities and capacities.
Mobilising the private and financial sector
Finally, this requires new investments, as the public resources mobilised fall short of needs. “We have to turn to the economy to find the shortfall of 200 or 300 billion needed to achieve Aichi”, explains Gilles Kleitz, Director of the Ecological Transition and Natural Resources Department at Agence Française de Développement (AFD). This raises the issue of responsible banks and the creation of a “pro-nature” economy, which AFD is working on with other development banks in the International Development Finance Club (IDFC).
So, the private sector has to do its bit. “Companies are an engine for innovation and concrete solutions”, adds Bertrand Bonhomme, Sustainable Development Director at Michelin Group. For example, the Act4Nature initiative has gathered companies with varying sizes, levels and knowledge, which have committed to 10 shared criteria.
“A business as usual approach is no longer possible”, sums up Stefan Leiner, from the DG Environment of the European Commission. The European Union, which is mobilised for the preparation of COP15, with support from the project implemented by Expertise France, is calling on all actors to get involved to build an ambitious and transformative agreement to preserve global biodiversity. Without hesitating to “speak to the hearts of people”, concludes Yann Wehrling, French Ambassador for the Environment, reminding that the extinction of the Great Apes may happen in our lifetime.
This panel discussion was jointly organised by the European Union, UNESCO, Expertise France and EPE (Entreprises pour l’Environnement), in partnership with Act4Nature, AFD, AFB, CNRS, FRB, Humanité et Biodiversité, IDDRI, IRD, MAB Man and the Biosphere Programme, NNHN, Orée, Plateforme de l’Initiative Française pour les Entreprises et la Biodiversité, IUCN French Committee and WWF. It gathered some 250 people, including representatives of a number of permanent delegations to UNESCO.