Greenpeace European Unit media briefing, October 2024 

Brussels – The European Union likes to portray itself as a “leading player in global biodiversity efforts and negotiations” (European Environment Agency, EEA). However, after falling far short of its 2020 biodiversity targets, the EU now risks to fall short of its 2030 biodiversity targets. Its leadership will be challenged at the sixteenth meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties (COP16) from October 21 to November 1, 2024 in Cali, Colombia, where countries will gather to assess progress in implementing the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (“the framework”). 

The framework includes a target to protect 30% of the world’s land and seas by 2030 (the “30×30” target), and has been dubbed the “Paris agreement for nature,” a “historic deal to reverse biodiversity loss.” The EU has pledged to implement policies to stop its contribution to the sixth mass extinction, in which humans are causing a decline in biodiversity that threatens the future of humanity itself. However, less than half of the EU’s member states have submitted new national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs) to implement the commitments they made under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Key EU countries also do not support international biodiversity efforts sufficiently through their financial contributions towards an agreed 20 billion dollar commitment by 2025. 

Špela Bandelj Ruiz, Greenpeace Central & Eastern Europe Biodiversity Campaigner, said: “No more empty promises without action – the newly elected EU leaders and Commission have to  pass laws that protect vital ecosystems, guarantee clean water and provide healthy food. – The EU must prioritise tackling the climate and ecological crises and ensure a just transition for local communities and their economic well-being.

“During UN Biodiversity COP16, representatives of the European Commission will be in the spotlight. The whole world will be watching how they deliver on their existing global commitments, but also if they  lead the way towards implementing the targets at home, accompanied by adequate funding.”

This media briefing looks at the selected commitments made by the EU in the Global Biodiversity Framework, compares commitments with actions, and analyses the EU’s failure to meet its commitments since the signing of the framework.

Read the seven-page briefing here.