UNEP and the Biodiversity Conference

This briefing note was published in September 2020 to coincide with the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly

The UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15), to be held from December 7 to 19, 2022, in Montreal, Canada, will convene governments from around the world to agree to a new set of goals for nature over the next decade through the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

The framework sets out an ambitious plan to implement action to bring about a transformation in society’s relationship with biodiversity and to ensure that, by 2050, humanity can fulfil its shared vision of living in harmony with nature.

It features 21 targets, including conserving at least 30 per cent of land and sea areas and restoring at least 20 per cent of degraded freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems.

The conference will also look at implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity protocols that deal with the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of nature and the safe transport, handling and labelling of Living Modified Organisms.

UNEP calls for ambitious, measurable, feasible science-based targets that contain the quality of protection needed for people and the planet.

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