Event Type: Meeting/Conference

As countries are preparing to agree upon a new post-2020 global biodiversity framework during the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) in October 2021, non-state and sub-national actors, such as cities, regions and companies, are increasingly drawing attention to their contribution to biodiversity governance. Non-state and sub-national actors set up standards and commitments, develop and share knowledge, provide funding and execute projects on the ground. Bringing non-state initiatives closer to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and involving these actors in global biodiversity governance has the potential to build positive political and societal momentum around global biodiversity conservation, foster innovative and experimental governance arrangements and break current gridlocks to enable countries to take more ambitious biodiversity goals. To provide more visibility to the contributions of non-state actors, COP14 in Sharm El Sheikh in 2018 saw the launch of the Action Agenda for Nature and People in the run up to COP15. A current consultation process led by the CBD Secretariat aims to explore how the Action Agenda should develop after the new global biodiversity framework is adopted. In light of the important contributions non-state actors can make to implementing the new framework, it will be key to identify what form such voluntary commitments for biodiversity should take and how the Action Agenda could become a meaningful pillar in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

To address these questions, the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, supported by adelphi, is organizing a series of events to facilitate discussion among a selected group of experts. The three session will discuss the role of non-state and subnational actors in the run up to Open Ended Working Group 3 and COP15 with respect to non-state action at landscape level; climate and biodiversity action in the urban context; and monitoring and reporting of non-state action. The sessions will be held under Chatham House rules.

Session I: “Seizing the Landscape Opportunity to Catalyse Transformative Biodiversity Governance”

The first session focuses on how the GBF can more actively include a landscape perspective, particularly speaking to non-state and subnational actors involved in landscape level initiatives. The session shares insights from a recent policy brief by PBL on the topic, it invites reflections and comments by key experts in the field and allows for a broader discussion in plenary. The plenary discussion will focus on strengthening the links between the GBF and non-state and subnational action at landscape level as well as on how the Action Agenda could promote landscape initiatives and attain more strategic importance in the GBF.

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The purpose of the conference is to bring together a wide range of scientists, experts and stakeholders, in order to engage in various aspects of research relating to negative CO2 emissions. This will include various negative emission technologies, climate modelling, climate policies and incentives.

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The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum, to be held on 30-31 January 2018, will provide a platform for youth to engage in a dialogue with Member States and to discuss the policy frameworks and promote innovative, institutionalised approaches and initiatives for advancing the youth development agenda at national, regional and global levels with a view to promoting solutions to the global challenge of strengthening resilience and sustainable development.

The conference aims to inspire the next frontier of research focused on the science of cities and climate change. The primary goal of the conference is to assess the state of academic and practice-based knowledge related to cities and climate change, and to establish a global research agenda based on the joint identification of key gaps by the academic, practitioner and urban policy-making communities.

The conference seeks to forge stronger partnerships among these communities and catalyze new processes for joint knowledge production; connect existing data platforms and potentially initiate new ones; as well as catalyze funding to meet these goals. It will bring together representatives from academia, scientific bodies, other research organizations and agencies; member states of the United Nations; city and regional governments; and urban and climate change practitioners and policy-makers. The main aims are to improve scientific knowledge and to stimulate research underpinning effective and efficient urban responses to climate change, as well as to provide inputs to the products of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

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Climate Change and a whole and global warming in particular,  are known to have a negative impact on biodiversity in  three main ways. Firstly, increases in temperatures are known to be detrimental to a number of organisms, especially those in sensitive habitats such as coral reefs and rainforests. Secondly, the pressures posed by a changing climate  may lead to sets of responses in areas as varied as phenology, range and physiology of living organismss, often leading to changes in life cycles (especially but not only in reproduction), losses in productivity or even death. On occasions, the very survival of some very sensitive species may be  endangered. Thirdly, the impacts of climate change to biodiversity are estimated to be felt in the short term in respect of some species and ecosystems, but also in the medium and long term in many biomes. Indeed, if left unattended, some of these impacts may be irreversible.

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In 2015, countries made a bold and ambitious commitment when adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Target 15.2 of SDG 15 on Life on Land calls for halting deforestation by 2020, among others. In addition, the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030 (UNSPF) adopted in 2017 by the UN General Assembly calls for reversing the loss of forest cover and increasing forest area by 3 percent worldwide by 2030 (Global Forest Goal 1, Target 1.1).

This international conference, organized by the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, will bring together a wide range of stakeholders to discuss the challenges of halting and reversing deforestation and to jointly explore ways to accelerate progress towards achieving in particular the SDG Target 15.2 and Target 1.1 of the UNSPF.

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