COP15: Global Policy Forward View
This is a briefing paper on COP15, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s summit on biodiversity, which took place from 7th December to 19th December 2023 in Montreal, Canada. The summit was originally scheduled to take place in 2020, but was significantly delayed, principally due to COVID-19.
The summit held in December, COP15, was particularly important as it produced a post-2020 framework of targets and rules to address biodiversity loss.
COP15 has now created what some commentators are referring to as having the potential to become a ‘Paris Agreement for nature’, the Kunming-Montreal Framework.
This briefing was published at the time of the summit. For a more recent briefing on global biodiversity, read our briefing on COP16, and for the latest developments in the UK, read our briefing on land and nature policy.
What were our recommendations following COP15?
- Set national targets to implement the Kunming-Montreal Framework in a way that recognises the interconnected systems embedding unsustainable pressures on nature.
- Support a Land Use Framework that takes a strategic approach to all forms of land use, utilising scientific insights to maximise the ‘ecosystem services’ which land can provide and environmental land management to safeguard natural resources.
- Protect nature during planning processes and through appropriate landscape designations, including in the Levelling-Up Bill. When dealing with the impact of planning on nature, use the mitigation hierarchy (avoid, minimise, restore and offset).
- Give nature a home at the local level. Each Local Authority should employ ecologists and planners should be trained in key ecological principles.
- Facilitate nature recovery through improved landscape designations, effective management and monitoring of protected sites, and appropriate funding.
Since the briefing was published, there has been progress on many of these recommendations, including the publication of a Land Use Framework for England. However, many of the core challenges still remain.
The UK's approach to delivering environmental targets needs to be much better. Our report, 'The Golden Thread of Governance', sets out a model for a better approach to reconnecting environmental targets with credible outcomes.
To find out more about the topic, you can read our briefing on the latest developments in land & nature policy. To support effective policy delivery at the national and local level, join our Environmental Policy Implementation Community (EPIC).
If you want to support the work of the IES, you can become an affiliate, or if you’re a professional in the environmental sector working with science, consider joining the IES.
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