The United Nations’ Biodiversity Conference (COP15) will take place in December 2022 in Montreal, providing a global forum for discussions on how to protect and restore Canada’s natural ecosystems.
The Montreal conference is the first of its kind in 12 years, with the previous meeting taking place in Aichi, Japan in 2010. COP15, in its entirety was originally supposed to take place in Kunming, China in 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused its postponement, and instead split the conference into two phases, with the first primarily taking place virtually in October 2021 and hosted in Kunming. Continued health protocols in China caused the second phase of COP15, the in-person portion of the conference, to be moved to Montreal.
“The UN Biodiversity Conference will convene governments from around the world to agree to a new set of goals for nature over the next decade through the Convention on Biological Diversity post-2020 framework process. The framework sets out an ambitious plan to implement broad-based action to bring about a transformation in society’s relationship with biodiversity and to ensure that, by 2050, the shared vision of living in harmony with nature is fulfilled.”
The conference follows the global conversation on climate change, COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, which included a day focused on the relationship between climate change and biodiversity, mutually-reinforcing twin crises, and how nature and ecosystem-based solutions can be used to help reduce global emissions.
Why Does Biodiversity Need Its Own Discussion?
Biodiversity loss is one of the biggest contributors to the climate crisis. The organisms in our natural environment help to clean the air and water, create a stable ecosystem for humans to live in, and can be a carbon sink for the emissions generated.
Decades of development that has disregarded the value of biodiversity has put our economies at risk. According to the World Economic Forum: “Destroying the balance and richness of nature poses significant risks for societies and economies. More than half of the world’s total gross domestic product, or $44 trillion, involves activities that are moderately or highly dependent on nature.”
To protect and restore natural assets will take a concerted global effort, with significant investments both at home and for countries that don’t have the financial means necessary. This doesn’t occur in an effective and efficient manner without creating global discussions featuring international experts to help guide how best to use our financial resources for protection and retention efforts.
The Canadian Perspective
Beyond our role as host nation for the conference, the results of the discussions will have a significant impact on our commitments to protecting biodiversity both here and abroad.
The Government of Canada has stated that its goal for COP15 is to “…continue to advocate for international collaboration on an ambitious Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, including targeting 30 percent of lands and oceans conserved by 2030. Halting and reversing biodiversity loss require real collaboration and partnership, including with Indigenous Peoples, the original guardians of the land. It also requires real transformative change, innovation, and a proper accounting for the true value of nature in decision-making across all sectors.”
That’s an ambitious plan considering that in the previously-established framework from the 2020 conference in Japan, 20 goals were established and agreed upon by the international community but not one of the goals were met. Canada, as an example, had targeted the protection of 17 per cent of its land and freshwater to be protected by 2020, but fell short.
At COP15, part of the discussion will focus on not just setting targets, but creating action plans to achieve the agreed-upon benchmarks.
Getting Nature on the Balance Sheet
Actions take money, and costs are always an issue. The undeniable long-term value of biodiversity protection and restoration measures still come with an upfront cost. The difficult part of the discussion is placing a dollar value on measures involving biodiversity. How do you quantify the value of restoring a wetland, planting 1,000 trees, or protecting an eroding coastline?
Where action is being seen on this front is at the local level. Municipalities are starting to include ‘natural assets’ as part of their asset management planning, and are providing a dollar value for those assets.
To increase global investment, and quickly scale it to meet the growing demands of the changing climate, a greater understanding of the financial value of biodiversity and nature-based solutions is needed.
How WSP Can Help
Our team has been working with clients across the country, both the public and the private sector, to understand the value of biodiversity and create solutions that help protect and restore our natural ecosystems. We help them appreciate how biodiversity and climate change are inextricably linked, and the actions they need to take to become a nature-positive operation.
