U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, COP 15 commences in Montreal, Canada

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The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, known as Conference of Parties (COP-15) commenced in Montreal, Canada on 7 December 2022. The two weeklong conference (7-19 December 2022) was originally scheduled to be held in Kunming, China in October but was shifted to Montreal, Canada due to covid situation in China. 

This is the second part of the COP15. The first part was hosted by China on 18 August 2021 virtually and the second part was to be held in a face to face conference but it has been shifted from China to Canada. However the host of the COP15 in Montreal is still China.

The Conference focuses on saving the nature

The Biological diversity conference focuses on nature. It is different from the  UNFCCC (United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change ) organised Conference of Parties(CoP) which focuses on the problem of global warming and climate change due to emission of greenhouse gasses.

The Biological Diversity conference will focus on nature and how to stop and reverse the degradation of our nature by 2030.

Main issues that will be discussed at the Montreal conference are;

• One of the most notable draft targets is to conserve 30% of land and sea areas globally by 2030.
• It will aim to adopt a global framework for biodiversity to halt and reverse losses of the world's plants, animals, and ecosystems.
• Fair and equitable sharing of the benefits of natural genetics resources. 

United Nation Convention on Biological Diversity 

It is a multilateral treaty which was signed by the countries at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. It came into force on 29 December 1993. At present 194 countries are its signatories.

It has 3 main objectives:

• The conservation of Biological diversity 
• The sustainable use of the components of biological diversity 
• The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.

 Conferences of the Parties/COP 

• Countries which have signed the conventions are called Conferences of the Parties. The meeting of the Conferences of the Parties is  also called COP
• The first COP -1 was held in Nassau, Bahamas 1994.
• The 14th meeting was held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt (17-19 November 2018)
• It is held after every two years but due to covid it was held in 2021.