Montreal Biodiversity Conference COP15

The fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) will be held in Montreal, Canada on 7.-19. December 2022. The first part of the Conference took place in October 2021.

Countries all over the world are now negotiating a new global framework to halt the loss of biodiversity. The framework establishes the key goals and targets that can be measured to protect and restore biodiversity. The aim is to achieve a net positive impact, i.e. that human actions produce more benefits than harm to biodiversity, society and the economy.

The new Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework is being prepared because the period for implementing the current Aichi targets ended in 2020. 

The negotiations will focus on four main goals to be reached by 2050. The first two are also included in the EU Biodiversity Strategy that is already in force.

• Protection of sea and land areas and species.
• Promoting the sustainable use of nature and its contributions. 
• Fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the utilization of genetic resources.
• Mainstreaming, i.e. ensuring that biodiversity is integrated into all sectors of policy-making and society. 

Under the four long-term goals there will be 22 action-oriented targets to monitor the progress that is being made. These targets are to be reached by 2030.

Finland is an active player in the negotiations as part of the EU. Finland and all other participating countries will draw up their own national biodiversity strategies and action plans to support the achievement of the jointly formulated objectives.

• Press release: Kunming Conference provides a good prospects for further work to halt biodiversity loss (15.10.2021)
• Press release: Conference of Parties to UN Biodiversity Convention kicks off today – aim to halt biodiversity loss (11.10.2021)