What we know about the 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference so far

The United Nations 2022 biodiversity conference will be held in Montreal, Canada from December 7th.

The primary focus will be centred around the adoption of an efficient strategic vision and global roadmap for the conservation, protection, restoration and sustainable management of biodiversity and ecosystems for the next decade. Member States will map out 21 action targets from the first draft of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, including the protection of at least 30 percent of land and sea areas globally; restoration of at least 20 percent of degraded freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems; and reduce nutrients lost to the environment by at least half, and pesticides by at least two thirds, and eliminating discharge of plastic waste.

Damaged ecosystems contribute to the warming climate through the release of carbon, rather than storing it, with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) recently finding “rampant development is putting animals and humans in closer contact increasing the risk of diseases like COVID-19 to spread.”

The Conference will organise Member States to agree to a new biodiversity framework, setting new goals to achieve over the next decade to “bring about a transformation in society’s relationship with biodiversity and to ensure that, by 2050, the shared vision of living in harmony with nature is fulfilled,” according to the UNEP.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services claims that 75 percent of the Earth’s land and 66 percent of its oceans have been altered and eroded by human activity, with direct and indirect drivers of change accelerating rapidly over the past 50 years.

World leaders will also discuss the implementation of the protocols of the Convention on Biological Diversity at the Conference in December, focusing on the “fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of nature and the safe transport, handling and labelling of Living Modified Organisms.”

Earthly Education will continue to post updates on the Conference as new information is released.

First image by Ivan Bandura on Unsplash

Second image by jules a. on Unsplash