World leaders will not attend high-stakes UN biodiversity talks in Montreal next month, a top official said Thursday, despite fears their absence could scupper major breakthroughs at the meeting.
Hopes are high that a new global biodiversity framework will be agreed at the talks, dubbed COP15, despite a long list of targets that have yet to be agreed.
The landmark framework outlines an ambitious agenda to protect the planet’s land, oceans and species — and its backers hope it will be as instrumental as the Paris agreement was for climate change.
Some observers worry it will be hard to push through the blueprint without leaders at the meeting — or end up with a watered-down version — calling for their presence.
The head of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) said Thursday that heads of state and government will not travel to Montreal for COP15.
“We will not have heads of state and government,” Elizabeth Maruma Mrema told reporters.
But she insisted she was “not worried at all” that no agreement would be forged and called for a bold commitment from countries.
“It will be important to have a substantive framework, not a loose paper framework with no ambition, with no innovation, with no transformation.”
There are currently 22 targets in the draft framework — only two of which have been agreed, said Mrema — and the final number of targets could change.
Proposals include a global commitment to set aside at least 30 percent of both land and oceans as protected zones by the end of the decade, as well as efforts to cut plastic and agricultural pollution.
CBD’s deputy chief David Cooper said Thursday that it was not crucial to have leaders involved, urging them to send delegates with a clear mandate to succeed.
“It’s usually the ministers that have to roll up their sleeves and help get the agreement across the line,” he said.
Director of the Campaign for Nature, Brian O’Donnell last week called for the hosts of the talks, Canada and China, to invite leaders.
“Without that high-level engagement, we do risk not making progress,” he said.
The biodiversity COP from December 7 to 19 comes on the heels of UN climate talks currently underway in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Dozens of leaders attended the talks, facing calls to cut emissions and boost funds to poor countries to green their economies.
China’s President Xi Jinping did not attend those talks, despite his country’s role as a top global polluter and economic powerhouse.
The CBD has 196 signatories, though the United States — another key global player — is not a member.
