The United Nations 2022 conference on biodiversity [1], widely known as the COP15, has adopted the new Global Biodiversity Framework, which will be in force until 2030.
In the early hours of 19 December, the Chinese representative acting as President of the talks brought down the gavel to approve the new framework, ignoring opposition from the Democratic Republic of Congo and the consensus required for its adoption.
On the grounds that there were no formal objections, the new framework was approved. It was met with broad criticism by social movements, who have denounced the corporate capture [2] of the space, the promotion of agribusiness and industrial agriculture (one of the sectors most responsible for biodiversity loss worldwide) and false solutions, such as ‘nature-based solutions [3]’ and ‘nature positive’ [4])
As the talks concluded, Friends of the Earth International [5] issued a statement [6] calling the new Global Biodiversity Framework “not fit for purpose”. The environmental federation also held a press conference [7] the following day.
🔴Final reaction #COP15 [8]: "I can't see how just encouraging business will really make a difference in ensuring they cannot further destroy ecosystems. This Global Biodiversity Framework will actually not be fit for purpose and I’m very sorry to say so." Our coordinator @nelemarien [9] pic.twitter.com/CiiRXYe05Z [10]
— Friends of the Earth International (@FoEint) December 20, 2022 [11]
Real World Radio covered the negotiations from Canada. In an interview, Theiva Lingam from Friends of the Earth International said: “There seems to be a lot of corporate influence in the CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity). In the new text there are no regulations to address key drivers [of biodiversity loss] and there are a lot of greenwashing measures, such as offsetting and nature based solutions, self-reporting and self-certification.”