COP15 - Opportunity to promote the recovery of species and ecosystems
(VOVWORLD) -The fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) will begin in Montreal, Canada on Wednesday.
 Cape penguins at the Pairi Daiza Zoo. (Photo: VNA) |
Representatives of the 196 members of the Convention on Biological Diversity will seek a new global biodiversity agreement to protect ecosystems and species from destructive human acts.
In his opening remarks, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau highlighted Canada’s commitment to ensuring COP15 is a success by working with international partners to reach an agreement on an ambitious Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
The GBF will provide a roadmap to guide worldwide biodiversity conservation efforts until 2030. To support this goal, Trudeau announced that Canada will contribute of 255 million USD to help developing countries – home to the vast majority of the world’s biodiversity – advance conservation efforts. This funding will support implementation of the GBF, and is in addition to the more than 733 million USD Canada has already pledged to support action projects that address the effects of climate change on biodiversity in developing countries.
Steven Guilbeault, Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change, said COP15 is a generational opportunity to work together to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, create a nature-positive world, and find ways to achieve the climate goals set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.