What’s next for biodiversity, globally and in Europe? Follow-up of the CBD COP14

On Wednesday 30th of January, Ricardo Serrão Santos MEP, Chair of the “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services” Working Group of the European Parliament Intergroup on “Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Sustainable Development” hosted the event: What’s next for biodiversity, globally and in Europe?Follow-up of the CBD COP14

At CBD COP14 last November in Sharm El Sheikh 196 governments agreed to scale up investments in nature and people towards 2020 and beyond.  Governments agreed on accelerating action to achieve Aichi Biodiversity Targets by 2020 and on a comprehensive and participatory process to develop a post-2020 global biodiversity framework. The Governments of Egypt and China (host of COP 15 in 2020) and the CBD secretariat announced the launch of a Sharm El Sheikh to Beijing Action Agenda for Nature and People engaging all sectors and stakeholders and aiming amongst other objectives to inspire and help implement nature-based solutions to meet key global challenges.

The COP President reiterated that ministers and heads of delegations welcomed Egypt’s initiative to promote a co-ordinated approach to address biodiversity loss, climate change and land and ecosystems degradation. The IPCC special report on global warming of 1.5°C made it clear that each half degree matters, each year matters and each choice matters. Ambition and coherent implementation are crucial for achieving climate, biodiversity and land targets.

IPCC and IPBES have given us 12 years.  The next 2 years will be decisive for mobilising for accelerating implementation of short term action and increasing national ambition to meet the interlinked and interdependent challenges of biodiversity loss, climate change and land degradation.

The event will inform about the CBD COP 14 outcome and provide a platform to discuss follow-up and imminent next steps.