International delegates gathered in Squamish on Wednesday, Aug. 23 for a Ministerial on Nature.
About 50 delegates from all over the globe have gathered at the Cheakamus Centre to “take stock of the successes, challenges, and opportunities to implement the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).”
The GBF was adopted in December 2022 at COP 15 and sets out four main goals, which ultimately aim to improve and sustain natural ecosystems and biodiversity worldwide by 2050. In addition, the GBF sets out 23 targets to be completed by 2030, some of which include reducing threats to biodiversity and increasing sustainable uses of natural elements.
Opening remarks were delivered by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, who spoke briefly about the importance of implementing action on climate change now more than ever.
“As I speak with you today, we are in the middle of Canada's worst forest fire season ever,” he said. “Here in British Columbia, these fires are forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes while destroying biodiversity and exacerbating climate change. This is an unwanted reminder of the need to act together with urgency to tackle the twin climate and nature crises.”
The acting executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, David Cooper, called the GBF a “historic” achievement while also noting the need for action.
“These challenges — the wildfires, droughts, floods, extreme temperatures that we see here but also all around the world — they underline … the urgency of our work,” he said.
Guilbeault laid out several steps that Canada has already taken including investments of $800 million for Indigenous-led conservation and $350 million for international biodiversity protection as well as a ban on harmful single-use plastics and use of pesticides on federal land.
“We need to remain focused on implementing the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework so that we can fulfill our promise to protect nature now and future generations,” Guilbeault concluded.
Cooper reminded the crowd of delegates that countries were requested to begin to implement the targets by COP 16, which will be in session in October 2024. He believed that sharing the experiences so far of implementation at the ministerial would help countries get further along.
The opening remarks ended with a pre-recorded statement by the Minister of Ecology and Environment for the People’s Republic of China, Huang Runqiu, who served as the COP 15 president.
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