Archives
3rd Session of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction
Delegates delved, for the first time, into textual negotiations on the basis of a “zero draft” containing treaty text developed by Conference President Rena Lee (Singapore). Deliberations were productive but there is still much work to be done with the fourth and final mandated session scheduled for March 2020.
18th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP18)
COP18 highlighted the increasing pressures on CITES as an instrument to counter the rising scale of biodiversity loss, as parties struggled to address stresses other than trade on wildlife populations, including habitat loss, disease outbreaks, and human-wildlife conflict. These are issues CITES is not designed to regulate but must consider when considering what “sustainable use” of endangered species means.
50th Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-50)
The 50th session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change adopted the Summary for Policymakers of the Special Report on Climate Change and Land (SRCCL) and accepted the underlying report. The SRCCL represents the first ever comprehensive look at the whole land-climate system, addressing land as a critical resource, desertification and land degradation, food security, and land and climate change responses. This is the first IPCC report in which most of the authors are from developing countries, with women accounting for 40% of Coordinating Lead Authors.
2nd Part of the 25th Annual Session of the International Seabed Authority (ISA)
Talks focused on the Authority’s central consideration at this point in time: the development of the draft exploitation regulations on deep-seabed mining. These regulations, once concluded, will govern future activities in the world’s oceans, yet will need to ensure environmental protection while simultaneously balancing stakeholders’ interests. The sessions were successful in advancing, inter alia, calls for environmental protection in deep sea mining, operationalizing the Authority’s Strategic Plan, and shaping the organizational culture towards more participation and transparency.