Posted on 11 December 2022

Commenting at the start of week two of the COP15 negotiations, Li Lin, Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy, WWF International, said:

“A week into the UN biodiversity talks, all is still to play for in Montreal. We still have language in the draft agreement that would commit countries to conserving at least 30% of the planet, safeguard the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, and agree on a finance package to support conservation efforts. Language around a strong mission – which we hope will become the biodiversity equivalent of the 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement – remains. Yet, alarm bells are ringing.

“Negotiators have, for the most part, focused on minutia rather than the big-ticket items where compromise must be forged if the world is to secure an ambitious global biodiversity agreement in Montreal. They have left themselves a lot to do in the next few days. It is critical that when Ministers arrive on Thursday they have relatively clean text with the right level of ambition to discuss and agree on. What we have currently is a spider’s web of brackets.

“We are particularly worried about two issues: a threat to the draft agreement’s implementation mechanism, and attempts to avoid action to address humanity’s footprint. A strong implementation mechanism is essential to hold countries accountable to achieving the global goals and targets they agree to in Montreal. And a strong commitment to significantly reduce humanity’s footprint is vital. Unless we halve the footprint of production and consumption by 2030, we won’t be able to turn the tide on biodiversity loss – spatial conservation alone won’t be enough! Agriculture, for example, is responsible for 70% of terrestrial biodiversity loss due to widespread conversion, pollution and soil degradation. COP15 must be the moment when we agree to fix our broken food systems, as part of a broader transition of our productive sectors so that they work with nature, not against it.

“WWF urges countries to remember why they are here: humanity and wildlife face an escalating biodiversity crisis that threatens all life on earth. We need to work together to safeguard our one home.”