Gaps in Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

Gaps in Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

Subject: Environment

Section: Biodiversity

Context:

• A group of environmental scientists, ecologists and policy experts have posited that the draft of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework fails to account for the totality of chemical pollutants that threaten ecosystems globally.

Concept:

Draft of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework:

• The draft agreement falls short by limiting itself to nutrients, pesticides and plastics, while many chemicals of high concern and importance are left out of the equation — including substances that are persistent and toxic, such as mercury and PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), as well as pharmaceuticals.
• The draft framework, to be discussed June 21-26 has 21 targets. 
  • Target 7 mentions only nutrients, pesticides and plastic waste.
  • According to the first draft that was shared in July 2021, the aim is to “reduce pollution from all sources to levels that are not harmful to biodiversity and ecosystem functions and human health, including by reducing nutrients lost to the environment by at least half, and pesticides by at least two thirds and eliminating the discharge of plastic waste.”
  • The modified text released in March 2022 after the negotiators met in Geneva suggests that this reduction of nutrition should be “significant” and highlighted that chemicals, particularly pesticides which are harmful to biodiversity are reduced
• “The irrefutable evidence of chemical pollutants found in every ecosystem of the world, including remote Arctic, Antarctic and Himalayan ecosystems, should compel negotiators of the new biodiversity framework to include these as threats to global biodiversity,” according to experts.
• The criticism came at a time when it has become evident that China is dragging its feet on finalising the decision on the final date of the CoP15.
  • China is one of the 17 mega-biodiversity countries in the world, and has nearly 10 percent of all plant species on Earth. The country is currently president of the CoP but is yet to announce the final date of the meet. Experts fear that this delay would be detrimental to global biodiversity.
• The first part of the meeting took place virtually in October 2021.
• A study published on June 3 revealed that 44 percent of Earth’s land area needs to be conserved to safeguard biodiversity.
• The current global target, set more than a decade back, is to conserve at least 17 percent of terrestrial areas through protected areas and other site-based approaches for improving the status of biodiversity and ecosystems. The post 2020 framework has indicated in target 3 that nations should conserve 30 per cent of their land.
• In March, the International Food Policy Research Institute released a report to show that protecting biodiversity is crucial for availability of food.
• Shifting diets, increasing crop and livestock productivity, and limiting agricultural land expansion would help achieve global biodiversity, food security and climate mitigation goals by 2050.

Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework’ for CoP15:

• The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, to be held in Kunming, China in August 2022, was supposed to take place in 2020 but was postponed due to the global pandemic.
• The overarching goals of the draft post 2020 framework — to protect the elements of biodiversity at all levels (genetic, species and ecosystem), sustainability and human well-being in the use of biodiversity and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of biodiversity.