(c) Fiona Dobson
Today’s blog is written by Fiona Dobson, Senior Policy Officer in the RSPB’s Global Policy Team, ahead of this year’s UN Biodiversity Conference COP16
In just a few days’ time, decision-makers from countries from across the globe will be flocking to Cali, Colombia for COP16 – the latest UN biodiversity meeting. A new analysis shows the UK needs to up its game to drive success towards meeting global nature targets.
What’s COP16?
The UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity – known as the CBD – brings together almost every country in the world to work together to tackle nature loss. Every two years, countries that are part of the convention come together for a big meeting, called a Conference of the Parties. It’s known as COP for short.
At the last COP, COP15 in 2022, a landmark new plan for nature was agreed, where counties committed to a set of global goals and targets to halt and reverse the loss of nature by 2030 – called the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). This has an ambitious headline mission to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity by 2030.
The next biodiversity COP, COP16, kicks off next week in Colombia. This will be a pivotal moment to shine action on progress (or lack of!) so far, and to take vital decisions to ramp up action.
How is the UK involved?
The UK is a ‘party’ to the CBD, which means that it’s one of the 195 countries that are formally signed up to the Convention, and committed to delivering the KMGBF.
The UK played an active role in getting the global framework across the line in 2022, and took pride in showing ‘global leadership’. But true leadership requires not just talking the talk, but walking the walk. And we’re yet to see them do the latter.
Off track
The latest results from a progress tracker compiled by Wildlife and Countryside Link shows that England is way off the mark towards delivering against global targets. The annual tracker assesses policy progress towards meeting the KMGBF targets in England. This year’s update finds that action in many areas has stalled or even gone backwards over the past two years. It’s a bleak score card. More than half of the target rankings in the tracker are flagged as red, meaning that no progress has been made.
This tracker just looks at progress in England – the other countries of the UK are also committed to the global targets, and need to be taking urgent action too. In Northern Ireland, we’ve only just seen the publication of their Environmental Improvement Plan after a year of delay. In Scotland, a Natural Environment Bill is to be introduced in this parliament to establish the framework for legally binding nature recovery targets. However, the detail of these targets is not expected to be agreed until 2026 at the earliest. In Wales, despite some progress towards setting legally-binding targets, we are at present still lacking the concrete action plans we need for nature’s recovery. As some of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, we need the countries of the UK to be acting with much more urgency to turn the tide of loss.
High hopes
Despite poor progress, the countries of the UK, and some of the UK Overseas Territories, have set their sights high. Back in August the UK submitted its national targets, which set out, for each of the 23 targets in the KMGBF, the ambition in the UK, including a breakdown of the commitments for each UK country. This is to be applauded – elsewhere in the world not every country has promised to keep up the global ambition nationally.
Some of the encouraging commitments in the national targets include:
However, despite these grand ambitions, without full, detailed action plans that set out how each national target will be delivered and financed in each country, we’re continuing to risk riding on empty promises.
The full UK action plan must come out soon. In fact, the UK was meant to release its plan by the deadline of COP16, but we know that this will be missed. We have now heard that the plan – known as the UK’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) – is expected to come out in the new year, to account for the ongoing revision of England’s pillar of the plan. It’s essential that this extra time is used to build a robust NBSAP that is truly world-leading.
In our ‘A World Richer in Nature’ report, we’ve set out in more detail what’s needed in each of the UK’s countries to meet global commitments.
So how can the UK show leadership now?
The UK is once again heading to the CBD COP with hopes of showing global leadership. As the first global nature meeting for the new Labour government, COP 16 is a vital moment for them to turn the tide on poor progress. This means taking some key actions at COP16:
Time to get back on track
We know that success for nature is possible. This year’s State of Nature report included stories of conservation action that has delivered results for nature, from species diversity bouncing back in the Lyme Bay Marine Protected Area after trawling bans, to populations of Natterjack Toads expanding at sites where conservation management is well-resourced, to large-scale restoration projects like Cairngorms Connect which are helping to benefit many woodland dependent species.
With less than 6 years left till 2030, the governments of the UK need to step up their game. COP16 is a crucial opportunity for the UK, and countries across the globe, to steer a course back to achieving our global mission: halting and reversing nature loss by 2030.
You can add your call for action! Ahead of COP 16, our friends at BirdLife International are calling for us all to share our hopes for the future. Together, we can show decision makers that people across the globe are united to protect nature. Share your message of hope here.
Find out more about what's at stake at COP16 and how the RSPB are involved here: We’re attending COP16 to ask governments for on the ground action for nature now (rspb.org.uk)