Almost 200 countries are due this year to adopt a global framework that will, by 2050, safeguard nature from the destruction caused by human activity.

However agreement on the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) currently being negotiated in Geneva is proving very difficult to find, principally because of the cost. Business for Nature estimates that every year $1.8 trillion, or two percent of global gross domestic product, is currently spent on environmentally harmful subsidies.

Negotiations have already been delayed for 2 years due to Covid.

The draft CBD aims to protect 30% of land and sea life by 2030, eliminating environmentally harmful government subsidies and restoring at least a fifth of degraded freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

The final version will be negotiated at the delayed Cop15 summit in China expected at the end of August.

The Guardian reports Guido Broekhoven, head of policy at WWF International, saying: “Despite countries arriving in Geneva committed to making progress on a global plan to tackle nature loss, the complexity of the issues discussed have led negotiations to move forward at a snail’s pace over the last week. We are yet to see governments try to close the enormous gap between the unambitious draft global biodiversity framework currently on the table.”

Li Shuo, a policy adviser for Greenpeace China, said “Many of the issues, we simply don’t have enough time to deal with. Several of the most important discussions have not happened yet and I don’t think there will be time in Geneva. I am worried watching the sessions and we can’t keep kicking the can down the road.”

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Header photo taken at previous CBD meeting. Credit IISD/ENB | Mike Muzurakis