Welcome to the fourth meeting of Convention on Biological Diversity’s Subsidiary Body on Implementation. My thanks to those who were also here for last week’s gathering of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA). You’re nearly halfway through your time in Nairobi, so keep those energy levels up.
Good progress was made at SBSTTA-26, including on the Monitoring Framework and Global Action Plan on biodiversity and health. I look forward to a strong framework and plan being recommended for adoption at COP16 in Cali, Colombia, later this year.
Friends,
This is the first meeting of the subsidiary body on implementation since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The goals and targets the world committed to at COP15 were both aspirational and inspirational, but they were also measurable, reportable and monitorable. And we all know it is implementation that counts.
Some countries have already submitted updated National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans. The remaining countries are working to follow suit. These strategies and plans must take a whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach to delivery of the GBF at the national level. This means ensuring buy in from ministries responsible for agriculture, finance, planning, health and climate. From the private sector. Civil society. Indigenous peoples. And sub-national governments.
We at UNEP are proud to be working with the UN Development Programme, the Global Environment Facility and many other important partners to support Parties in this process. But there is much to do before 2030. Time is not on our side. This body must look at delivering strategies that enable countries to deliver faster, better, quicker and smarter.
You will be looking across many areas of the package of COP15 decisions. Mechanisms for planning, reporting and review. A resource mobilization and financial mechanism. Capacity building and development. It is through ambition on the full package of decisions from COP15 that we can deliver on the GBF.
With a clear recommendation from SBSTTA to finalize the Monitoring Framework, you now have the task of recommending national reporting templates, the forum for country review and procedures for the global review of implementation to COP16.
It also falls to you to make recommendations on resource mobilization, including on the revised strategy for the GBF. This is a critical point of discussion. To succeed, the GBF needs sufficient resources. In this regard, UNEP is pleased to be working with China to launch the Kunming Biodiversity Fund. This will help, but we need more. So, I ask you to approach the discussion on resource mobilization with the same level of ambition we saw at COP-15.
On technical and scientific cooperation, I welcome interest from the many regional and sub-regional entities to provide support for implementation. Clear operational and financing mechanisms for this support will be needed to ensure this network of institutions delivers maximum benefits to Parties.
As I said earlier, time is not on our side. COP16 is fast approaching. 2030 is fast approaching, and biodiversity is still declining across the globe. So, I encourage you to show focus, compromise and ambition. To advance work on means of implementation that meet country needs. And help to ensure that biodiversity is put on a path to recovery for the benefit of people and planet.
