Extended biodiversity talks set for Nairobi

GENEVA－Countries have proposed holding an extra biodiversity meeting in Nairobi in June after talks in Geneva tasked with saving nature failed to produce an agreement on Tuesday after two weeks of negotiations.

Negotiators from across the world met in Geneva to thrash out details of a sweeping plan to "live in harmony with nature" up until midcentury, with key milestones in 2030.

After two years of pandemic-induced delays, negotiators at the Convention on Biological Diversity tried to pack in both technical scientific work as well as high-level policy negotiations.

Delegates concluded they needed more time to agree on a draft text set to be adopted at the United Nations COP 15 meeting in Kunming, China, later this year.

The delegates representing nearly 200 nations－although not the United States－agreed to hold the additional negotiations in Nairobi in June, acknowledging that additions made to the draft by governments would need further negotiation.

"Biodiversity is not restricted to one place, it is everywhere, it is life," said Ghanaian academic Alfred Oteng-Yeboah, who has played a key role in international efforts to protect wildlife and species diversity.

Conservation groups hope the COP 15 can reinvigorate efforts to halt the devastation of the world's nature, after countries failed to meet almost all of their biodiversity goals for the last decade.

After negotiations wrapped up in Geneva, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, told Xinhua News Agency that she is optimistic the post-2020 global biodiversity framework will be ratified at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD in Kunming.

"Clearly, the world is waiting for a global biodiversity framework," Mrema said, voicing hope that these negotiations are going to "continue in the lead up to Kunming".

The meeting in Geneva set the stage for the COP 15 biodiversity summit in Kunming, which, according to Mrema, is likely to be held between the end of August and the beginning of September.

Mrema also said that a meeting will take place in Nairobi at the end of June to further progress on the development of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

Global framework

The Kunming Declaration was adopted last October and commits to ensuring the development, adoption and implementation of an effective post-2020 global biodiversity framework to reverse the current loss of biodiversity.

It also aims to ensure that biodiversity is put on a path to recovery by 2030 at the latest, toward the full realization of the 2050 Vision of "Living in Harmony with Nature".

In February, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that 9 percent of all the world's species will likely be at high risk of extinction even if warming is capped at the ambitious Paris target of 1.5 C.

During last year's COP 15 meetings in Kunming, China pledged to take the lead by investing 1.5 billion yuan ($233 million) to establish the Kunming Biodiversity Fund.

"That is clearly China's commitment, not just to the process, but to ensure the effective implementation of the framework when it is adopted. Of course, now we are seeing China playing the leadership role as the president of the COP in the preparations for the COP in Kunming," Mrema said.

Agencies - Xinhua