The Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will convene virtually to advance the preparations for the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, currently scheduled to take place in October 2021 in Kunming, China.

This meeting will build on the work of an informal meeting in March 2021, where participants had the opportunity to comment on the documents prepared for each agenda item. SBI-3 aims to adopt conference room papers (CRPs) on the following agenda items:

• Assessment and review of the effectiveness of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
• The post-2020 global biodiversity framework
• Resource mobilization and the financial mechanism
• Capacity-building, technical and scientific cooperation, technology transfer, knowledge management, and communication
• Cooperation with other conventions, international organizations and initiatives
• Mechanisms for reporting, assessment and review of implementation
• Review of the effectiveness of the processes under the Convention and its protocols
• Mainstreaming of biodiversity within and across sectors and other strategic actions to enhance implementation
• Specialized international access and benefit-sharing instruments (Article 4.4 of the Nagoya Protocol)
• Global multilateral benefit-sharing mechanism (Article 10 of the Nagoya Protocol)
• Administrative and budgetary matters

Each agenda item will first be presented in plenary. The formal first reading of each item will take into account and build upon the statements and submissions made at the March 2021 informal session. On the basis of the results of the first reading, the Chair may establish contact groups, which will meet virtually between plenary sessions to advance negotiations.

Plenaries will convene on 16-18 May, 28-30 May, and 11-13 June. Sessions will last three hours, from 7:00 – 10:00 am Montreal time (GMT-4). Adoption of final draft decision documents (L documents) will be deferred until an in-person meeting can be held, unless the Bureau decides otherwise.

IISD, through its Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) Meeting Coverage, will provide daily web updates of the plenary sessions and a summary and analysis following the closure of SBI-3.  Our summary report will be available on this site on Wednesday, 16 June 2021.

To receive continuing coverage of this event delivered to your inbox, subscribe to the ENB Update newsletter.