Montreal will host a UN conference on biodiversity in December

The first part of the 15^e Conference of the parties (COP) of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity took place in Kunming, China, in the fall of 2021. The meeting was held in a hybrid format, that is to say that leaders participated on line.

The second part of the conference was to be held in the same place, but the sanitary rules and the repeated confinements in several Chinese cities forced the United Nations to consider a place other than Kunming.

It was from this moment that the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, whose headquarters are in Montreal, began to plan to hold the second part of COP15 in the city.

The UN organization confirmed in a letter that it will hold this important summit in Montreal from December 5 to 17. Even if this summit is held in Canada, it is China which will chair the COP15, it is indicated. The logo and the theme are maintained.

The Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity will work with the Chinese and Canadian governments to provide logistics for this conference. The Chinese government has notably undertaken to finance the travel of ministers from developing countries.

At a press conference in the Quebec region on Monday, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault spoke of a prestigious event for Canada.

A particularly important COP

Thirty years after the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity at the Rio Earth Summit, the next COP is particularly important, according to Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the administrative secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. This is the case, she says, because of recent scientific evidence that biodiversity loss is occurring at an unprecedented rate.

During a speech in Montreal earlier this month, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema referred to a particularly alarming report published in 2019 by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which falls under the UN.

More than half a million terrestrial species have insufficient habitat for their long-term survival and are at risk of becoming extinct, many within just a few decades, unless their habitats are restored, according to this report.

The rate of species extinction is accelerating, which has serious consequences for human populations and risks to erode the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwiderecalled the President of theIPBESRobert Watson, when the report was released.