COP15 – MOVING ON

by: Deepshikha Singh, Deputy Head of La Française Sustainable Investment Research & Head of Stewardship

The Fifteenth UN Biodiversity Conference is finally over. After a long hiatus of around two years, the ‘lesser known’ environment-focused Conference of Parties – COP15 – ended on Monday, the 19th of December 2022 in Montreal, Canada with the adoption of the ‘Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’ (GBF), including 4 goals and 23 targets to be achieved by 2030. It has been hailed as a ‘landmark’ moment in humanity’s attempt at reversing the nature loss to secure our own health and well-being alongside the planet. Representatives of 188 governments on site (95% of all 196 Parties to the UN CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity), as well as two non-Parties – the United States and The Vatican), finalized and approved measures to contain the ongoing loss of terrestrial and marine biodiversity. 

Overarching goals have managed to cover the most pressing issues regarding nature and biodiversity loss.  It was encouraging to see the final text having much less ambiguity than what had been discussed over the past year in Open-Ended Working Groups. Targets are quantitative and measurable, incorporate the “whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach” and focus on making finance work for nature. The agreement also obligates countries to monitor and report every five years or less on a large set of "headline" and other indicators related to progress against the GBF's goals and targets. The CBD will combine national information submitted by late February 2026 and late June 2029 into global trend and progress reports.