A planet in crisis – UN CBD COP15 | 20th December 2022 | UPSC Daily Editorial Analysis

December, 2022 UPSC
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What's the article about?

  • It talks about the UN CBD COP-15 summit.

Relevance:

  • GS3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment;
  • Prelims

Context:

  • The fifteenth meeting of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (COP-15) is a two-week conference that started on 7 December 2022 in Montreal, Canada.
  • COP brings together countries to agree on targets to ensure the survival of species and stem the collapse of ecosystems across the world.
  • The original pre-pandemic hosts, China, held the COP15 Presidency.
  • India is also a party to this COP.
  • This COP adopted the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework among other things.

What is the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)?

  • Opened for signature in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and entering into force in December 1993, the CBD is an international treaty for the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources.
  • With 196 Parties, the CBD has near universal participation among countries. The Convention seeks to address all threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services,including:
    • threats from climate change, through scientific assessments,
    • the development of tools, incentives and processes,
    • the transfer of technologies and good practices and
    • the full and active involvement of relevant stakeholders including indigenous peoples and
    • local communities, youth, women, NGOs, sub-national actors and the business community.
  • The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing are supplementary agreements to the CBD.
    • The Cartagena Protocol, which entered into force 11 September 2003, seeks to protect biodiversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology.
      • To date, 173 Parties have ratified the Cartagena Protocol.
    • The Nagoya Protocol aims to share the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources in a fair and equitable way, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies.
      • Entering into force 12 October 2014, it has been ratified by 135 Parties.

Why is a Paris-like (UNFCCC) agreement necessary?

  • The effects of climate change are visible, but the loss of biodiversity, though on the same scale, seems invisible to key policy makers.
  • Based on current trends, the UN reckons, an estimated 34,000 plant and 5,200 animal species, including one in eight of the world’s bird species, face extinction.
  • About 30% of breeds of main farm animal species are currently at high risk of extinction.
  • Forests are home to much of the known terrestrial biodiversity, but about 45% of the earth’s original forests are gone, cleared mostly during the past century.

India’s views on this issue?

  • In this light, India’s stance, i.e., of not wanting hard targets on proposals such as reducing the use of pesticides, given that their effects on impacting biodiversity are documented, and conserving 30% of land and sea, seems anachronistic particularly when it sees itself as a champion of conservation and living in harmony with nature.

Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF):

  • It includes four goals and 23 targets to address the loss of biodiversity and restore natural ecosystems by 2030.
  • The GBF was agreed upon by representatives of 188 governments, including 95% of all Parties to the CBD, as well as the United States and the Vatican.

Way Forward:

  • What cannot be measured, cannot be understood or addressed. Thus, to conserve biodiversity, like addressing climate change, we need to devise methods to make the loss of biodiversity visible.
  • Thus, the various developments, including the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at COP 15, are indeed a step in the right direction.



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