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Roadmap to COP 15: Timeline of key milestones
Due to the novel COVID-19 pandemic, many key events on the local and subnational Roadmap to the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are continuously modifying their dates and methods of delivery. An updated timeline, with the most recent event dates and details can be seen below:
Key Updates
ICLEI World Congress
Part 1 of the ICLEI World Congress took place on 13-15 April, and comprised of a high-level virtual dialogue on ‘Engaging Cities and Regions in the Global Nature Agenda’ on14 April. This high-level event brought together subnational governments and cities from the global north and south, where the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity delivered a keynote address.
IUCN World Conservation Congress
The IUCN Congress will be held in Marseille from 3-11 September. Taking COVID into account, IUCN recently announced that it has taken the decision to organise a hybrid event, which will allow those who cannot attend the event in person to follow and participate in certain events remotely. The French government reaffirms that it will organise this IUCN Congress with great enthusiasm, and do its utmost to ensure that this is done under the conditions desired by IUCN and in accordance with the health protocols in force at the time of the event.
International Biodiversity Forum
The International Biodiversity Forum (“Foro Internacional de Biodiversidad”) led by the CONGOPE (Consortium Of Autonomous Provincial Governments Of Ecuador) took place online in Ecuador from 19-22 April. The event brought together representatives and presentations on “the contribution of subnational and local governments to global commitments to biodiversity”. Some highlights of the event included the President of CONGOPE, Pablo Jurado, stressing how sustainability is key to finding balance, as the connection between biodiversity and the pandemics is quite apparent, while also pointing out the importance to involve the youth.
Oliver Hillel (Convention on Biological Diversity) urged cities to sign the Edinburgh Declaration, and Renata Gomez (Regions4) and Rodrigo Perpétuo (Executive Secretary ICLEI – South America), noted the importance of CitiesWithNature as an initiative to involve cities in this process to COP15.
Opportunities to get involved
Save the Date: Register for ICLEI CBC’s next webinar
ICLEI continues to host its monthly Post-2020 webinar series to keep our constituency of cities and regions up to date on the unfolding participatory process on the roadmap to CBD COP 15.
Our upcoming webinar on 6 May is titled ‘Cities and regions’ solutions to global nature-related challenges’ on the basis of this year’s theme for International Day for Biological Diversity – “We’re part of the solution”. The webinar aims to highlight what actions cities and regions are taking in line with this theme and will profile projects and initiatives from Cape Town, Tirana, Manchester, Delhi, Urbana, San Antonio and several African cities participating in the Urban Natural Assets project. Register for the time slot that suits you best below:
Visit the dedicated website to stay updated on the local and subnational advocacy for nature agenda and to get involved, where all recordings of previous webinars are available to watch.
Visit the Subnational Advocacy for Nature website
Online Workshop: The financial sector and the Post-2020 GBF
The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), under the guidance of the Co-Chairs of the Open-ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, is organizing a workshop entitled: “The financial sector and the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework”, which will be held online on 17-18 June.
The outputs of this workshop will be provided as information for the third meeting of the Open-ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
Action Agenda Newsletter on Biodiversity Commitments: Issue 1
The CBD Secretariat recently launched the Action Agenda Newsletter on Biodiversity Commitments to create awareness of the methodologies used to track progress in support of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, enhance the profiling of commitments from non-state actors, and to further help raise ambition for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, while contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Commitments relevant to our local and subnational constituency include several biodiversity initiatives from the City of Montreal, Canada,which are captured in six briefing sheets developed together with ICLEI-Cities Biodiversity Center, CitiesWithNature and the CBD Secretaria. These briefing sheets describe Montreal’s concrete biodiversity initiatives specifying 2030 action targets from the zero draft of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
Read Montreal and ICLEI’s commitment
Edinburgh Process
The Edinburgh Process reached a milestone this April, with the publication of the full report of the Edinburgh Process consultation with the global subnational constituency titled ‘The Edinburgh Process for subnational and local governments on the development of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework’. The report will be submitted as an information paper into the Third Open Ended Working Group (OEWG-3).
The Edinburgh Declaration currently has a total of 144 signatories, comprising 127 signatories from subnational governments, cities and local authorities. 57 of the 127 signatories are from Japan (cities and provinces), 37 are from France (cities and metropolitan areas), followed by 11 Local Authorities from Scotland. It must be noted that the Edinburgh City Council signed up recently in April, with signatures from City Council leaders Cammy Day and Adam McVey. The first local authority from England, London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, have also signed. The Declaration currently sits with an additional endorsement from 16 NGO’s and 1 State Party (Mexico).
Sign the Edinburgh Declaration
Learn more about the Edinburgh Process
COVID-19
ICLEI is collecting resources that can be useful and inspiring for local and subnational governments. Click here to see the dedicated webpage, and click here to access a collection of relevant blog posts.
The generous support from the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework – EU Support project, the INTERACT-Bio project, and CitiesWithNature partners and cities, has contributed to this email update.
