Participants lined up for the first day of the UN Biodiversity Conference amidst unprecedented media presence and protesters surrounding the conference center. The need for a sense of urgency to achieve a successful outcome was prevalent in the opening statements by Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
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Negotiations geared into full speed without delay. During the opening plenary, regional groups outlined their priorities, with many focusing on the global biodiversity framework (GBF) and digital sequence information (DSI). Two Working Groups started deliberations on the long and broad agenda containing draft decisions with numerous unresolved matters. Several contact groups were established, leaving small and non-anglophone delegations wondering how they would deal with the workload.
Three contact groups met in the evening to address draft decisions on: mechanisms for planning, monitoring, reporting, and review; resource mobilization; and risk assessment and risk management under the Cartagena Protocol.
Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment of China and President of the fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP), highlighted China’s commitment, noting “we must now conclude a peace pact with nature” through a renewed GBF.
“The world is watching you,” Inger Andersen reminded participants, urging them to put their differences aside to face down the “apocalypse” that humanity is threatened with in a triple planetary crisis.
The success of COP 15, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema said, is pegged on an ambitious and achievable GBF. She implored parties to find consensus and use their voices in chorus to put the planet back on the road to recovery.
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All ENB photos are free to use with attribution. For the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, please use: Photo by IISD/ENB | Mike Muzurakis
Plenary Session
View of the dais during the plenary
Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
David Cooper, CBD Deputy Executive Secretary
From L-R: COP 15 President Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment, China; Yulin Fu, China; and Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, CBD Executive Secretary
Ousseynou Kassé, Senegal
Nneka Nicholas, Antigua and Barbuda
Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Canada
Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) Chair Hesiquio Benítez Díaz, Mexico
Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI) Chair Charlotta Sörqvist, Sweden
From L-R: COP 15 President Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment, China; Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, CBD Executive Secretary ; and Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UNEP
Gwen Sisior, Palau
Melesse Maryo, Ethiopia
John Cheechoo, International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity
Joaquín Salzberg and María Victoria Gandini, Argentina
Rigobert Ntep, Cameroon
Kenneth Deer, Indigenous World Association
Working Groups
WG II Chair Helena Brown, Antigua and Barbuda
Wadzanayi Goredema-Mandivenyi, CBD Secretariat
Peter Deupmann, CBD Secretariat
WG I Chair Rosemary Paterson, New Zealand
Ntakadzeni Tshidada, South Africa
Mathurin Wendrabo Rouamba, Burkina Faso
Min Hahn, Switzerland
Alexander Shestakov, Russian Federation
Between Sessions
From L-R: Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General; UN Secretary-General António Guterres; and Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UNEP
Around the Venue
