H.E. Mr. Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China and the President of COP 15,
CBD Executive Secretary, Ms. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema,
Co-Chairs of the Working Group, Mr. Francis Ogwal and Mr. Basile van Havre,
Friends and colleagues.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II found that global warming is putting biodiversity and ecosystems at risk of extinction. These findings are in line with the fifth Global Biodiversity Outlook from the CBD and the range of IPBES reports.
These reports – along with the UN’s Common Agenda, work from UNEP and outcomes from UNEA 5.2 – all tell us we must adopt a transformational Global Biodiversity Framework and follow it up with urgent implementation across whole of government and whole of society.
So, delegates must make significant progress here to ensure success at COP15 part 2, and thereafter.
The last climate COP kept 1.5 alive. The UN Convention to Combat Desertification COP adopted pledges to invest in land restoration. UNEA 5.2 delivered key resolutions for nature, plastic pollution, chemicals and waste. Now the spotlight is on the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework, with its associated decisions and commitments on resources and transparency, is a critical piece of the multilateral puzzle that, when assembled, will lay out the pathway to end the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.
In Geneva in March, delegates negotiated many of the goals and targets of the framework. The subsidiary bodies adopted important recommendations to support development and implementation. Progress was made on the monitoring framework. Here, in Nairobi, Parties need to finalize the entire framework as a recommendation to COP15.
Friends, you have key progress to make at this meeting. Let me run through just a few.
One, defining ambition and measurability.
For nearly all draft goals and targets, numerical elements have been proposed. But most are in square brackets, and all need to be agreed. Without clearly defined numerical elements in its goals, targets and clarity on the indicators to measure progress, the new framework would remain largely aspirational – setting it up to fail before it even gets going.
Two, strengthening planning, reporting and review.
We only partially achieved 6 of 20 Aichi targets set for 2020, and fully achieved none. To avoid a repeat, we require a whole-of-society approach to implementation, including collaboration across the Multilateral Environmental Agreements and the ability to address gaps quickly and effectively. Robust planning, monitoring, reporting and review mechanisms will be key success.
Three, resource mobilization and other means of implementation.
Without sufficient resources, an ambitious post-2020 global biodiversity framework cannot be implemented. Its ambitions will not be achieved. We need to step up resource mobilization and other crucial means of implementation such as capacity development, technical and scientific cooperation, and knowledge management to put biodiversity on the path to recovery.
Four, Digital Sequence Information (DSI).
Progress must be made on DSI as part of the wider package of issues coming to COP15. The Geneva meeting sent a positive signal in agreeing to a draft recommendation. But intense negotiations need to take place to find much-needed consensus.
Friends, it is your task to reach agreement on these, and other, issues.
Finding common ground is not always easy. But our planet and human health are under serious threat due to biodiversity loss. You have come far and are now so close to agreement and to achieve the transformative change needed to address the biodiversity crisis as set out in the Kunming Declaration– and here I thank China for its leadership.
With one last push this week towards COP, you can build a framework that will help every human and every other species on this planet to thrive. I wish you well in your negotiations.
Thanks.
