Kunming-Montréal Agreement to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030: Five key outcomes from COP15
Kunming-Montréal Agreement to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030: Five key outcomes from COP15
Gemma James and Rebecca Drury
Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history, presenting a direct threat to human wellbeing worldwide. In response, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was agreed on 19th December 2022 at the UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD CoP15), includes 23 targets aiming to “take urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030”.
The Agreement has been applauded for its targets to reduce harmful subsidies, protect 30% of land and sea and restore 30% of degraded lands, and for its emphasis on indigenous rights. However, critics highlight the absence of quantifiable milestones for many targets (e.g. plastic pollution, waste generation), reduced ambition to reduce production and consumption, corporate disclosure not being mandatory, and the failure to provide sufficient finance.
Although hailed by some as a “Paris moment” for biodiversity, ’urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss’ does not bring the same clarity, for example, as reducing carbon emissions, with measurement and quantification remaining a clear challenge.
This Agreement replaces the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and Aichi Targets, and the 2010 Biodiversity Target set in 2002. None of these targets were met, and the new agreement is two years delayed.
Rapid and successful implementation is now essential to ensure failure is not repeated, and that the risks of biodiversity loss – including failing to prevent catastrophic climate change - are avoided.
Chronos Sustainability is working with clients across the finance, corporate and NGO sectors to contribute to and make progress against the Montreal Biodiversity Agreement. Here are the five key takeaways from the Agreement that are driving our work.
1. Biodiversity action from corporate and financial institutions
Business interest in biodiversity is rising rapidly. Around 5% of accredited representatives in attendance at Cop15 were from the corporate sector and multiple business initiatives were launched including:
· An Accountability Accelerator by the Global Commons Alliance, aimed at closing potential loopholes in corporate commitments to protect and restore nature.
· A Nature Benchmark launched by the World Benchmarking Alliance.
· A draft updated Biodiversity Standard from the Global Reporting Initiative representing a significant lift in required disclosure for biodiversity.
Nevertheless, action from corporations and financial institutions is far from that for the climate crisis, requiring a substantial step change to deliver on the Montreal Agreement.
2. Closing the finance gap - the role of private finance
Halting biodiversity loss requires an investment of $700billion per year. If implemented and redirected to actions with positive impacts for nature, reforming $500 billion of subsidies harmful for nature (Target 18), could significantly reduce the investment needed. Complementing this, Target 19 aims to mobilise at least $200 billion per year from public and private sources. However, the commitment to mobilise just $20billion by 2025 rising to $30 billion by 2030 of public finance seems trivial given the gap remaining.
Like the Paris Climate Agreement, the Montreal Biodiversity Agreement establishes a clear mandate for private financial flows to align with the 2050 Vision of "Living in Harmony with Nature”. At CoP15, 150+ financial institutions with US$24+ trillion in global assets called for an ambitious framework to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. These institutions must now lead a shift away from investment in activities that are harmful for nature and bridge this outstanding balance through development of innovative funding mechanisms and scaling investment in activities with positive impacts on nature.
Further signalling growing investor-led action, CoP15 saw the ‘soft launch’ of Nature Action 100, a new global investor-led engagement effort focused on driving greater corporate action to tackle nature loss. Fifteen new signatories to Finance for Biodiversity Pledge were also announced, now representing a total of €18.8 trillion in assets, held by the 126 signatories from 21 countries.
3. An enabling environment for corporate disclosure
Target 15 requires governments to take measures to ‘encourage and enable’ companies and financial institutions to disclose dependencies and impacts on biodiversity.
Over 300 global businesses with more than $1.5 trillion in combined revenues supported the Make it Mandatory campaign. Disappointingly, Target 15 stopped short of being a mandatory requirement, but signals a clear direction of travel. Regulations in jurisdictions covering most of the world economy are likely to be introduced in alignment with this target in the near term, with some governments already showing leadership to drive change beyond any global agreement, e.g. the EU’s deforestation-free supply chain regulation.
With the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) now being integrated into regulations globally, it is anticipated that the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), currently in development, will likely follow suite. The International Sustainability Standards Board also announced that it will be integrating nature, further advancing a global language for nature-related financial disclosure.
Businesses and financial institutions should therefore be prepared to align their activities and portfolios to the Montreal Agreement.
4. The ‘30 by 30’ biodiversity target
Target 3 aims to conserve 30% of land and sea. Currently, around 17% of land and 8% of sea are within formally protected areas. Although welcomed by many, there are concerns over a focus on quantity over quality, and that delivery of this ‘catchy’ target may distract from that of others, such as ensuring all land is under effective management to halt biodiversity loss (Target 1) and restoring 30% of degraded land (Target 2), which private landowners can also make significant contributions. There is also currently inadequate funding to implement, with countries with high levels of biodiversity such as the Democratic Republic of Congo expressing objections to the agreement for this reason.
5. Rights-based approaches key to success
Responding to concerns about human rights abuses, and in a step change from past biodiversity agreements which have skirted the issue of rights, the Montreal Agreement makes clear references to the rights of Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities (IPLCs) and gender equality throughout.
This recognises that Indigenous Peoples manage over a quarter of the world’s land surface, intersecting with at least 40% of protected areas globally, and that Indigenous-managed lands often have higher levels of biodiversity. Legally recognising traditional territories and rights could therefore go a long way to achieving effective conservation management for 30% of land and sea.
As a minimum, companies and financial institutions will also therefore need to be able to demonstrate that their activities respect and uphold these rights. Better still, companies and financial institutions can proactively support projects and activities that recognise, represent and include IPLCs, and funding mechanisms that include IPLCs in the distribution of biodiversity finance.