Highlights and images for 1 September 2023

On the penultimate day of the tenth session of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Plenary (IPBES 10), delegates were busy addressing outstanding issues across the various items on the meeting’s agenda.

Want to dig deeper into today's talks? Read the full Earth Negotiations Bulletin daily report.

Delegates in Working Group 1 worked throughout the day and into the evening to progress in their consideration of the SPM of the assessment of IAS. Having already agreed on the background messages of the SPM, they took up the key messages on impacts, trends, management, and integrated governance before turning to figures and tables. Deliberations ended on an emotional note, as exhausted authors and Working Group 1 Co-Chair Douglas Beard received a standing ovation for their efforts in leading delegates to a successful outcome.

In Working Group 2, delegates reflected on the effectiveness of the Platform and agreed on the terms of reference for the midterm review of the 2030 rolling work programme. They decided that the review will consider, among others:

• options for addressing emerging matters;
• online working arrangements;
• outreach efforts; 
• engagement with other entities, including science-policy bodies; and
• the policy impact of the Platform.

Having reached agreement on its preparation, delegates in Working Group 2 turned to consider the initial scoping report for the methodological assessment of integrated biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning and ecological connectivity. The discussions were as strenuous as those on the methodological assessment on monitoring biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people. Members’ interventions led to a ballooning of individual paragraphs at times, much to the dismay of the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel. Delegates treaded a careful balance between providing authors guidance on policymakers’ information needs on the one hand and not prejudging the outcome of the assessment by being overly prescriptive on the other.

As has often been the case this week, deliberations continued in the evening to sort out remaining disagreements on the mid-term review and consider the draft decision on additional assessments to be carried out up to 2030, among others.