2021: Scaling up dynamics for biodiversity

The One Planet Summit kicked off 2021, the new “Super Year” for nature marked by several major international events: the World Congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the COP26 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Organised on 11 January 2021, the One Planet Summit was indeed the first international event in 2021 on the path to the COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which will be held in Kunming (China). “All our vulnerabilities are inextricably linked. We need to transform our development model”, said the French President, Emmanuel Macron, at the opening of the summit.

Mobilisation required to reverse the trend

This summit provided a real opportunity to give new impetus to the commitments made during the World Summit on Biodiversity and support a global mobilisation for nature at the highest political level. Indeed, the global health crisis has given us a dramatic reminder of the importance of nature for our daily lives and our economies: biodiversity is life insurance for us.
 

Yet there has been an unprecedented level of damage to ecosystems. This will have major consequences on our ways of life in the coming decades. Reversing this trend is a major challenge today: we need to rethink our relationship with nature. It is also a key social and economic issue, which requires a transformative change in value chains, our production models and our trade channels, but also in our consumption patterns.
 

For further reading: Biodiversity: “Continue to mobilise, turn intentions into actions”

Biodiversity: What key issues?

The One Planet Summit also aimed to deepen reflection on specific issues, for which concrete decisions will greatly contribute to halting biodiversity loss.

The themes identified include: Biodiversity finance, a key issue for post-2020 governance.

The Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework - EU Support project considers that a more effective allocation of financial resources to biodiversity, supported by in-depth reflection on the related financing mechanisms, will not only contribute to more effective policies, but also to preventing financial subsidies that are harmful to biodiversity and increasing the level of global ambition.

The mobilisation of financing for biodiversity should make it possible to channel more public and private investments towards projects for the protection, sustainable management and restoration of ecosystems or towards the convergence required for public financing for the climate and biodiversity.

During the summit, France proposed to earmark at least 30% of investments related to climate finance for actions that have co-benefits for biodiversity, such as nature-based solutions.

The One Planet Summit also focused on the role of terrestrial and marine ecosystems in the protection and restoration of biodiversity, via protected areas and the preservation of the species that live in them, agroecology, which protects the diversity of ecosystems by reducing pollution while creating more jobs and acting on food security, and the link between deforestation, species and human health, in order to better prevent future pandemics.

To trigger a transformative change for biodiversity and achieve the 2050 Vision of the Convention on Biological Diversity, “Living in harmony with nature”, a holistic approach mobilising all sectors of society for all natural environments is necessary.

In this respect, the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework-EU Support project is committed to helping its governmental, local and civil society partners improve the mainstreaming of biodiversity issues into all sectoral policies.