Cape Town - While the COP 27 climate conference has ended, expectations have arisen for the COP15 United Nations Biodiversity Conference taking place in Montreal, Canada, next week. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) urged leaders to secure an ambitious agreement to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by the end of the decade.
Despite on-going efforts, biodiversity loss and food insecurity was growing worldwide, and this decline was projected to worsen unless a new set of goals for nature could be established at COP15, taking place from December 7 to 19.
The biodiversity conference will convene governments from around the world to agree to a new set of goals for nature over the next decade through the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) post-2020 framework process.
WWF International director general Marco Lambertini said: “We are losing biodiversity at an alarming rate. We have lost half of the world’s warm water corals, and forests the size of roughly one football field vanish every two seconds.
“Wildlife populations have suffered a two-thirds decline globally in less than 50 years. The future of the natural world is on a knife’s edge. But nature is resilient – and with a strong global agreement driving urgent action, it can bounce-back.”
WWF will be pressing governments in Montreal to adopt a ‘Paris’-style agreement.
Lambertini said: “Failure at COP15 is not an option. It would place us at increased risk from pandemics, exacerbate climate change, making it impossible to limit global warming at 1.5C, and stunt economic growth – leaving the poorest people more vulnerable to food and water insecurity.”
After many pledges and commitments, Lambertini said it was crunch time in Montreal for leaders to deliver, especially as the pandemic delayed any agreement on the global biodiversity framework under the UN Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) until now.
Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell said: “The Western Cape Province has been anticipating the outcome of the up-and-coming COP15, which will decide a new Global Biodiversity Framework.
“This includes some incredible stretch targets that could see the nations across the globe unite to secure the protection of the earth’s biosphere. A critical part of these agreements is Access and Benefit Sharing.”
On Thursday, Bredell announced the commencement of the Western Cape Biodiversity Act to promote the protection of biodiversity while also allowing for development, economic growth, and job creation in a sustainable and manner.
WWF senior director of global policy and advocacy, Lin Li, said leaders needed to send the message that the existential nature crisis could be addressed at the same time as current socio-economic needs.