| The most important gathering on biodiversity in a decade is kicking off this week in Montreal, where countries will negotiate an ecological deal that could hold equal significance to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. That's because scientists view biodiversity as one of the chief weapons in combating global warming. Protecting the world's ecosystems, and the diverse life within them, from habitat destruction, pollution and other threats, also means protecting natural carbon sinks that absorb vast amounts of emissions. Businesses are increasingly interested in meeting their ESG goals through biodiversity measures—such as forestry preservation— and a record number of financial institutions are expected to attend the conference known as COP15. The United Nations-run gathering will have representatives from 191 countries and follows COP27, a larger UN summit focused on climate change, that finished in Egypt last month. COP15 runs from December 7 to December 19. Here's what you need to know: Representatives are negotiating the wording of an agreement that lays out four long-term biodiversity goals for 2050 and 23 specific "action targets" to be completed by 2030, according to a news release from the UN on Sunday. The latter group includes eight targets to protect biodiversity, and five geared at making sure humans use nature sustainably and share its bounties and benefits equitably. The remainder are tools and solutions to achieve those targets and goals. The final text requires unanimous agreement to pass. High-level talks will be handled mainly by environment ministers. The work builds on goals first established by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, which was signed 30 years ago at the Rio Earth Summit and has been ratified by nearly 200 countries. The US, which has not ratified the convention, is expected to play a key role behind-the-scenes at COP15 as an observer, given recent progress in this area under President Joe Biden. That includes his appointment of a special envoy for biodiversity and water resources, the Inflation Reduction Act, and a new report on nature-based solutions for climate unveiled by the White House at COP27. About 1,400 organizations — including NGOs and businesses from 103 countries — will attend the conference as well. Support from the financial sector is seen as key to successfully implementing an agreement because funding to support biodiversity measures is currently far less than various estimates of what's needed. Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the UN, will help open the event. World leaders are unlikely to attend but fewer speeches and less pomp and circumstance may be a good thing in terms of getting more technical work done. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be the notable exception, given Canada is the host country. (Technically this meeting should be taking place in China, which holds the COP15 presidency, but it was moved due to Covid lockdowns.) Targets and Goals 2030: The biggest news to come out of COP15 would be consensus on what's known as the "30 by 30" target. It asks countries to commit to protecting 30% of the world's land and sea by 2030, including key ecosystems around the world.
"It has gained enough support prior to the meeting to stand a high chance of landing. But it isn't a foregone conclusion," says Alistair Purdie, an analyst at clean energy research group BloombergNEF and lead author of a recent report released by the group ahead of COP15. "Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa are yet to commit, so compromises from developed countries in other areas like finance and genetic resource benefit sharing will need to be made." Genetic resource sharing means distributing any benefits — including profit — that come from using genes found in the world's living organisms to create new products. Agriculture is an obvious example: much of the genetic information used to create new, drought-resistant crops comes from plants in the Southern hemisphere but the companies developing them are typically in the north. Medicine would be another example. 2050: An agreed goal to not only halt, but also start to reverse biodiversity loss by 2050 would be meaningful. That would likely mean enhancing the world's natural ecosystems, tackling extinctions, and maintaining genetic diversity among the planet's lifeforms. This could be expressed merely as an aspiration or backed up with numerical targets. BNEF's report puts the chances of a meaningful deal at fifty-fifty but says, if it happens, COP15 could be as significant as the 2015 Paris Agreement. 'Nature Positive' Language The idea of stopping and eventually reversing biodiversity loss — a strategy known as "nature positive" — is becoming the new "net zero" in terms of planet-friendly guiding principles for nations and businesses. The concept underpins many proposals in the draft agreement.
To read the rest of this story, click here. — With assistance by Natasha White, Eric Roston and Mathieu Dion | 
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