Virginijus Sinkevicius – Photo © European Union 2022
(MONTREAL) – Early this morning at the UN’s COP15 biodiversity conference, the EU joined 195 countries in adopting a global biodiversity framework committing the world to halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030.
The agreement on a global goal, hailed as equivalent to climate’s 1.5 C, sets a target to conserve at least 30 per cent of land, freshwater and ocean globally, while respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, and recognising the contributions of indigenous and traditional territories towards the target’s tally.
The agreement lays a solid framework with clear, measurable goals and targets, with complete monitoring, reporting, and review arrangements to track progress complemented by a robust resource mobilisation package.
“The agreement reached at COP15 is a landmark deal to protect nature, restore ecosystems and keep our planet liveable,” said the EU’s Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius: “This deal does the job on all fronts: it will restore 30% degraded ecosystems on land and sea by 2030 and will conserve 30% of the world’s marine and terrestrial areas. It reduces risks from pollution, targets subsidies harmful to biodiversity, mobilises funds and brings businesses on board by ensuring they take responsibility.”
More than half of global GDP depends on ecosystem services. 70% of the world’s most vulnerable people depend directly on wild species. The Kunming-Montreal agreement will accelerate ambitious policies around the world and mobilise financing for biodiversity from all sources – USD 200 billion per year by 2030. It commits the global community to actions to protect and restore nature and remove pollution – such as those that are part of the European Green Deal. This will ensure that nature continues sustaining societies, economies and communities for decades to come.
The Kunming-Montreal biodiversity agreement includes key global targets to:
- Restore 30% degraded ecosystems globally (on land and sea) by 2030
- Conserve and manage 30% areas (terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine) by 2030
- Stop the extinction of known species, and by 2050 reduce tenfold the extinction risk and rate of all species (including unknown)
- Reduce risk from pesticides by at least 50% by 2030
- Reduce nutrients lost to the environment by at least 50% by 2030
- Reduce pollution risks and negative impacts of pollution from all sources by 2030 to levels that are not harmful to biodiversity and ecosystem functions
- Reduce global footprint of consumption by 2030, including through significantly reducing overconsumption and waste generation and halving food waste
- Sustainably manage areas under agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries, and forestry and substantially increase agroecology and other biodiversity-friendly practices
- Tackle climate change through nature-based solutions
- Reduce the rate of introduction and establishment of invasive alien species by at least 50% by 2030
- Secure the safe, legal and sustainable use and trade of wild species by 2030
- Green up urban spaces.
