Biodiversity, the variety of all life on earth, is being lost at an alarming rate. Ecosystems, from forests and deserts to freshwater and oceans, are in steep decline. One million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction. Genetic diversity is disappearing.  Underpinning human well-being and livelihoods, biodiversity is the source of essential resources and ecosystem functions that sustain human life, including food production, purification of air and water, and climate stabilization. The planet’s life-support systems are at stake.

While a series of major global assessments provide the scientific basis of the urgent need to address biodiversity loss, and societal concerns increase, policy action lags behind. None of the Aichi Targets of the Strategic Plan on Biodiversity 2011-2020 were fully achieved. Held under the auspices of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference is expected to set the level of ambition for the next decade and take strong action to reverse this trend. This includes addressing the root causes of biodiversity loss that are linked to economic priorities leading to inequitable and unsustainable development.

The UN Biodiversity Conference will include concurrent meetings of the governing bodies of the Convention and its Protocols, including the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP 15), the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (MOP 10) to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, and the fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (MOP 4) to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits arising from their Utilization.

COP 15 is expected to adopt the post-2020 global biodiversity framework (GBF), which will set out a new plan to transform society’s relationship with biodiversity and ensure the Convention’s 2050 vision of living in harmony with nature is fulfilled. Negotiations on the GBF are being conducted under the auspices of an Open-ended Working Group (OEWG), which held four meetings between 2019 and 2022. Various submissions and consultations, as well as recommendations from the Convention’s Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI), and the Working Group on Article 8(j) have informed these negotiations. Several issues remain unresolved, and the OEWG will hold its fifth meeting immediately prior to COP 15. A main area of divergence among parties concerns the cross-cutting item of benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources.

A series of other agenda items are closely linked to the GBF, including:

• a monitoring framework for the GBF;
• a communication strategy;
• a gender plan of action;
• resource mobilization and the financial mechanism;
• capacity building, technical and scientific cooperation, technology transfer, knowledge management, and communication;
• mechanisms for reporting, assessment, and review of implementation; and
• mainstreaming of biodiversity within and across sectors.

COP 15 will further consider:

• protected areas;
• marine biodiversity, including ecologically or biologically significant marine areas;
• biodiversity and climate change;
• biodiversity and health;
• nature and culture; and
• synthetic biology.

Biosafety Protocol MOP 10 will consider a series of administrative, financial, and substantive matters related to the Biosafety Protocol and the Nagoya – Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress, including, among other items, risk assessment and risk management, and detection and identification of living modified organisms.

Nagoya Protocol MOP 4 will address financial, procedural, and substantive items concerning capacity building, specialized international access and benefit-sharing instruments, and a global multilateral benefit-sharing mechanism.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Biodiversity Conference is being held in two parts. The first part was held in Kunming, China, and virtually, from 11-15 October 2021. The second part will be held in Montreal, Canada, from 7-19 December 2022, immediately following the fifth meeting of the Working Group on the GBF, which will convene from 3-5 December. A high-level segment will be held from 15-17 December.