Event - 2020 UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15)

The 2020 Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) will take place on October 5, 2020 in Kunming, Yunnan, China. The theme of this event is ecological civilization, which is rooted in the Chinese vision of an ecological civilization and draws inspiration from traditional and new eco-innovations. High level officials mentioned that the theme aims to inspire a global society in which economic, social, cultural and environmental concerns are addressed in a truly holistic way, by recognizing that nature is the fundamental infrastructure supporting life on earth.

The Conference is a historic opportunity for the international community to set a new course that enables humanity to reconcile its relationship with nature by recognizing its dependence on the good functioning of natural systems. The conference will review and replace the Aichi Goals and seek political commitments and encourages the international community to protect biodiversity and accelerate actions on the existing global biodiversity targets, while guiding the direction of the 2020 negotiations.  It is also anticipated that the final decision on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework will be taken, together with decisions on related topics including capacity building and resource mobilization.

Negotiations for the 2020 global biodiversity framework to be adopted at the Conference started during the first session of the CBD Open-Ended-Working Group, which was held from 27-30 August, in Nairobi, Kenya. The next rounds of negotiations are scheduled for February 2020, in Kunming, China, and in Colombia in July 2020.

The 2020 Biodiversity Conference will also serve as the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the CBD. This event will also include the tenth Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (Cartagena Protocol COP/MOP 10) and the fourth Meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (Nagoya Protocol COP/MOP 4) are expected to address a series of issues related to implementation of the Convention and its Protocols.

As part of the process to develop the post-2020 framework, negotiations will be held in the context of an open-ended intersessional Working Group, co-chaired by Francis Ogwal (Uganda) and Basile van Havre (Canada). The first meeting of the Working Group is scheduled to take place in Nairobi, Kenya, from 27-30 August 2019. Its second meeting will be held in Kunming, China, from 24-28 February 2020. The third meeting of the Working Group is expected to convene from 27-31 July 2020 in Colombia.

Additionally, the Convention’s other intersessional and subsidiary bodies, including the Working Group on Article 8(j), the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) will address aspects of the post-2020 framework of relevance to their mandates.

A series of regional consultations have already taken place, including for Asia and the Pacific, Western Europe and Others Group and other members of the EU, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean. A thematic consultation with focus on gender elements was also held in New York, US, and a consultation workshop among the biodiversity-related conventions took place from 10-12 June 2019 in Bern, Switzerland.

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