UfM webinar COP15 on biodiversity – outcomes, follow up and way forward

7 March 2023, from 09:00 to 11:15 hrs (CET). The UfM webinar COP15 on biodiversity – outcomes, follow up and way forward” will be held online on 7 March 2023, from 09:00 to 11:15 hrs (CET). The webinar will recall and build around the COP15 outcomes and analyze the related implications for the Mediterranean region, including the coordination and converge of efforts, actions, plans needed to reach the 30×30 target as well as the financial opportunities and innovative solutions in place and in-the-making to promote management, conservation and restoration of degraded ecosystems and reversal of the current declining biodiversity trends.

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Background

In December 2022, after 4 years of negotiation, the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) finally adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), complemented by decisions on Monitoring, Reporting and Review, Resource Mobilization, Digital Sequence Information and Capacity Building. The agreement has been celebrated as a success. It will guide global action on nature and biodiversity until 2030, aiming at halting biodiversity loss and restoring ecosystems while respecting indigenous and local communities’rights. Important targets that have been negotiated to reach its mission to reverse and halt biodiversity loss are the 30×30 target (protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030);the restoration of 30 per cent of terrestrial and marine ecosystems;the reduction to near zero of the loss of areas of high biodiversity value;the reduction of harmful subsidies by at least 500bn USD per year;the halving of food waste as well as raising reliable international financing for implementation of the GBF.

Taken together, the GBF and the Paris Agreement contain a comprehensive set of commitments, the implementation of which will put nature on a clear path to recovery and bring us closer to a global economy that conserves biodiversity and is based on sustainable use of biodiversity. The swift, efficient and effective implementation of the Framework is also needed to keep the 1.5°C goal alive and requires the engagement of all government, all society and economy.The Mediterranean basin is an important biodiversity hotspot and one of the most biodiversity rich regions in the world. However, the Mediterranean ecosystem is under alarming pressure due to pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss and overconsumption of its natural resources.