Welcome to Nairobi – the home of UNEP and the capital of a nation teeming with the kind of biodiversity the world has committed to protecting under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
It is a pleasure for UNEP to host the 25th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA-25) – not least because UNEP is itself a scientific and technical organization.
Let me begin by thanking Sr. Hesiquio Benitez Diaz, SBSTTA Chair, for his drive to ensure strong science in support of the CBD for the last five years.
Friends,
At CBD COP15, the nations of the world adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and a package of important associated decisions. To deliver on these commitments, we need a whole of government, whole of society approach. Flexible and innovative finance, from many sources. Shifts in domestic policy that dislodge harmful subsidies and practices. And – of course – the best available science, drawing on technical capacity and available technologies. This is where you come in.
This meeting is an important milestone to ensure the scientific, technical and technological foundation for action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss – on the way to COP16 and beyond. As you discuss how to strengthen this foundation, remember that it should build on past success and inform future action.
At this meeting, you will also discuss the close links between climate change and biodiversity loss. Pollution and waste – the third prong of the triple planetary crisis – is also a cause of biodiversity loss. So, the foundation you are building must be wide enough, deep enough and strong enough to support action across the whole triple crisis.
Ensuring the best scientific approaches for transparency and accountability during delivering of the GBF is also high on your agenda. You will take stock of progress in developing the global monitoring framework and consider scientific, technical and technological inputs to the global review at COP17. This work is crucial for success and for the development and implementation of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans.
While discussions continue around the global monitoring framework, backed by the ad hoc technical expert group, parties must also develop and implement national monitoring frameworks. These frameworks will inform action and progress at the national scale. They will help build an understanding of biodiversity change at the global level. They will form the backbone of the global monitoring framework. Nations will need investment, and scientific and technical capacity, to build these frameworks.
Rest assured that UNEP is right behind you in your work.
Support for GBF implementation is embedded in UNEP’s Medium-term Strategy and programme of work. UNEP also plays a key role in supporting the entire UN system to deliver on biodiversity, as envisioned by the UN Common Approach to Biodiversity and Nature-based Solutions. UNEP is providing technical advice on solutions. Supporting country teams to integrate biodiversity into UN Country Cooperation Frameworks. And providing support to regional ministerial processes and Parties as they take forward commitments from COP15.
Friends,
It has already been almost a year since the world adopted the GBF. The year has passed in a flash, as will the remaining years until 2030. The clock is ticking ever louder and ever more urgently. We must act, now.
I wish you productive discussions and look forward to a future in which the nations of the world will start to build nature-positive societies on the scientific, technical and technological foundation you are providing.
