Great news from Montreal, Canada. An important global agreement on biodiversity has just been reached at the COP15 on the Convention on Biological Diversity to protect the earth and its biodiversity.

The landmark agreement sets out a post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, including ambitious targets such as the 30 by 30 that will protect at least 30% of land and seas by 2030.

Our S&D delegation to the COP15, led by César Luena and with João Albuquerque, followed the progress on negotiations in Montreal and met with several countries and stakeholders in the lead up to the agreement.

The head of the Parliament’s delegation and S&D member, César Luena, said:

“We are extremely happy that we have a new post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework in place to protect biodiversity, after delays due to Covid-19. The agreement is perhaps not as ambitious as we would have initially liked, but it is a crucial step forward in the global efforts to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.

“We are also particularly glad that the agreement contains the crucial 30 by 30 protection target and the establishment of a global restoration target that will require at least 30% of degraded ecosystems to be under restoration by 2030. The European Union is already working on an instrument to put this important goal into action through the Nature Restoration Law, which I am negotiating for the Parliament.” 

S&D member of the delegation, João Albuquerque, said:

“This is a very important day for biodiversity. We have a biodiversity crisis with a million plant and animal species facing extinction. This can have grave consequences, not only for nature itself, but for our societies given the multiple ecosystem services we depend on.

“Now that we have an agreement in place, what matters is implementation. It is essential that there is sufficient funding for biodiversity from all sources. Reforming subsidies harmful for biodiversity should be a priority. We also need robust monitoring and review mechanisms to make sure progress is made and the set goals and targets reached. The previous global biodiversity targets, the so-called Aichi targets, were not achieved. It is crucial that this time we get it right.”