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At the conclusion of last week’s 15th Conferences of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, held in Montreal, roughly 190 nations adopted a “landmark” treaty to conserve at least 30% of Earth’s lands and oceans, halve global food waste, and mobilize $200 billion per year in biodiversity-related funding from public and private sources by 2030.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework establishes regular national biodiversity and conservation work reporting obligations for national signatories, and coordinates state conservation efforts around several specific goals and targets, such as those mentioned above. Reporting requirements and mechanisms regarding funding are set out in an accompanying Mechanisms for Planning, Monitoring, Reporting, and Review document.
One of the plan’s more notable aspects is for the Global Environment Facility - a 30 year old multilateral fund providing finance for projects related to biodiversity - to establish a “Special Trust Fund” to support the framework’s implementation.
The treaty is, understandably, being compared to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. Both global agreements function by means of similar reporting protocols.
Furthermore, just as the Paris Agreement was regarded as persuasive legal authority in various climate action cases, the Kunming-Montreal Framework may be expected to likewise be regarded as persuasive in forthcoming lawsuits relating to land, water, plant, and animal conservation and protection.
Looking for help with biodiversity and other climate and environment-related legal matters? Contact us at 647-724-4308 or info@greeneconomylaw.com.