Greenpeace has sounded the alarm for world leaders: if you’re serious about biodiversity, it’s time to self-invite for COP15.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP15, which will be held in Montreal in December is our best shot to protect biodiversity globally and stop the crisis of biodiversity loss and mass extinctions that threatens all life on earth.
Greenpeace calls on the negotiators to create ambitious protections for wildlife, with more than 30% of all land and seas protected by 2030 (a policy known more commonly as 30×30) and for Indigenous rights to be explicitly recognised and respected throughout all negotiations, putting Indigenous Peoples and local communities at the center of decision making, management, and funding to protect wildlife.
Negotiators must also convene on how different nations in different contexts will implement the suggested plans. Funding for biodiversity protections is key – particularly since many of the countries suffering the greatest biodiversity loss have suffered from colonial oppression and extraction.
Yet despite CBD COP15 being our best shot to protect biodiversity, and despite the biodiversity crisis being as serious an existential threat to life on earth as climate change, the biodiversity crisis and the CBD COP15 remain relatively unknown. There’s a serious risk at the moment that this chance to protect nature will come and go without much attention. Decades in the future, we may look back and wish governments had acted stronger.
That’s why we’re demanding world leaders step up today. As of now, negotiations are still lagging at the CBD COP15, and there’s a serious risk these meetings will fail. Political participation is key to opening up the space for ambitious actions. From ozone pollution to climate change to biodiversity, it’s clear that global protections require leadership.
Biodiversity is set to be a major issue on the global stage for decades to come. Human life relies on biodiversity. As biodiversity crashes, we go with it. Biodiversity is central to our health, society, and to our economies – from local fisheries to global finance. Biodiversity is also one of the key sources of solutions to climate change – how we will mitigate and adapt to the impacts of our changing climate.
The key moment for global biodiversity and our collective future here on earth is now.
Consider this an open invitation to make biodiversity action happen. So we are asking world leaders: can nature count on you in Montreal?
August Rick is the International communications officer with Greenpeace East Asia