CoP15 statement from researchers urges upholding of 2030 targets

Researchers, conservationists, and the public across the world have released a statement to CoP negotiators calling for ambitious goals to ‘Halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity and put nature on a path to recovery by 2030’ to be included in the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) of the Convention on Biological Diversity, being finalised at COP15 by 19 December 2022 in Montreal Canada. The GBF, outlined further in Our hopes for COP15, has an overarching goal to ensure that biodiversity loss is reversed by 2030, and by 2050 biodiversity is valued, protected and restored. Key interim targets will also be set for 2030, and will determine whether we can fulfil the 2050 vision. The first draft of the framework, published in July 2021, has four goals and 22 targets, with much of the precise wording yet to be agreed by all Parties.

Signed by a global cross-section of biodiversity scientists and other researchers, including NbSI, the letter urges countries to resist all pressures to weaken the ambition of the GBF. As of 13 December 2022, 435 signatories from 52 countries have signed, urging that the 2030 deadline is not abandoned in the COP15 negotiations, and that ambitious quantitative targets on reversing biodiversity decline, reducing pressures and addressing equity must be retained. The signatories also call for inclusion of time-bound targets for key drivers of biodiversity loss to be addressed.

Many research articles document the need for such synergistic and ambitious action, and this call, aiming to enable researchers to be heard more loudly, will be presented to the negotiating countries at critical points in the coming days.

To read the full letter and become a signatory, visit www.bit.ly/bendthecurve2030 .