Will the world act this year on climate change and biodiversity loss?

TWO UN environmental meetings in 2021 dealing with climate change and biodiversity are being touted as pivotal in setting important targets for the coming decade.

First, the 15th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will review the delivery of its Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. The meeting in May in Kunming, China, is expected to make a final decision on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, together with decisions on capacity building and resource mobilisation. Then in November, the 26th session of the UN Climate Change Conference will take place in Glasgow. By then, the Biden administration should have hit its stride and be back within the Paris Climate Agreement framework. It is even being optimistically suggested that the Biden administration may be able to offer leadership during the meeting.

To begin with, while there is room for some optimism this year, sentiment should not get ahead of reality. The world will still be grappling with the coronavirus pandemic. Much will depend on how effective the vaccine is and how widely it will become available. Then there is the politics. So, the Leaders' Pledge for Nature - signed to date by 92 countries and the European Union - is being held up as a promising sign of gathering momentum for an ambitious post-2020 global biodiversity framework. But notably, leaders of countries with great biodiversity - such as Australia, the United States, China, Brazil, India and Asean members - have not made any pledges. Again, while some of the 60 elements within the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets were achieved by 2020, no target was fully met worldwide. Millions of hectares of forest have been lost since the targets were agreed in Nagoya in 2010. At least a million species face extinction.