Highlights and images for 8 December 2022

Negotiations entered full speed, with Working Group II reviewing a long series of items relevant to the Convention and its Protocols, and small groups multiplying. Reports about consensus reached in the contact group on risk assessment and risk management the previous night had a positive impact on morale, triggering more progress.

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The contact group on the global biodiversity framework (GBF) achieved small but much-appreciated progress on the text. The contact group on digital sequence information (DSI) held a general exchange of views in a constructive atmosphere, before establishing a Friends of the Chair group.

The budget committee held its first meeting, while other contact groups addressed: capacity building; synthetic biology; resource mobilization; agriculture; and marine and coastal biodiversity. Friends of the Chair groups focused on climate change and on the monitoring framework under the GBF.

Working Group II addressed various issues, ranging from the second work programme of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) to compliance under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing (ABS). Conference room papers (CRPs) are under way for the less controversial items. For the rest, deliberations will continue in contact and informal groups.

In the contact group on DSI, delegates increasingly found common ground on the establishment of a multilateral benefit-sharing mechanism, potentially with bilateral elements to allow space for national ABS legislation, while maintaining open access to DSI and integrating a strong capacity-building component to ensure all countries benefit from open access. While divergences remained, many found the constructive atmosphere encouraging.

The contact group on the GBF made good progress on the framework’s sections, including background, purpose, and fundamental premises, hopefully setting a good precedent for the days to come.