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A Bittersweet Bargain on Biodiversity

Despite some small victories, the critical principles of justice and precaution lost ground at COP 15 of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), as business, billionaires and biotech-backers brokered a deal for biodiversity that would work in their interest

Two years late – and supersized beyond any previous CBD meeting – COP 15 was always going to be a complex multidimensional chess battle. Once all sides met in Montreal’s enormous Palais des congrès, an army of corporate and philanthrocapitalist lobbyists and big delegations from biotech-friendly governments used their superior numbers to drown out (and often literally edit out) long-standing principles of precaution and justice.

PRESS RELEASE -- Banners to Bezos and Gates: Back Off of Biodiversity!

Activists drop 80-foot banners at COP15 warning of Billionaire takeover of biodiversity finance and policy

MONTREAL/TIOHTIÀ:KE/UNCEDED TERRITORY OF THE KANIEN’KEHÁ:KA NATION – Climber-activists today dropped 80-foot banners reading, “Biodiversity versus Billionaires,” visible from Montreal’s Palais des Congres where world leaders are meeting at the UN’s landmark Biodiversity COP15.

Over 80 civil society organizations call on CBD COP15 to reinforce precaution against geoengineering to protect biodiversity and communities

Eighty-three national and international organizations from forty countries have released an open letter

December 12, 2022, Montreal, Canada – Eighty-three national and international organizations from forty countries have released an open letter calling on the parties to the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (CBD) to say no to geoengineering and yes to protecting biodiversity, the environment, the climate, the rights of Indigenous peoples and the human rights of local communities.

CBD COP15 needs to reinforce precaution against geoengineering to protect biodiversity and communities

No to climate geoengineering! Open call to CBD Parties and CBD Secretariat

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) took a groundbreaking decision by addressing geoengineering and its potential impacts on biodiversity and people early on.

Voices from COP15 in Montreal

An interview with Christine von Weizsäcker of ECOROPA
Audio: 

COP15: An interview with Christine von Weizsäcker

by Zahra Moloo

(Click on the link below to listen to the interview.)

As preliminary meetings of the Open-Ended Working Group wrap up and official COP meetings begin, ECOROPA’s Christine von Weizsäcker talks to ETC Group about evaluating new genetic technologies and the rights of indigenous people in the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

Protecting Precaution in the CBD

Establishing Technology Horizon Scanning, Assessment & Monitoring in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

TIME: 18.15, Wednesday, December 7 2022
LOCATION: Business and Industry Organizations Meeting Room
Light refreshments will be served

 

Since its earliest days, the CBD has prioritised the precautionary approach to assess and monitor the impacts of new technologies. In an era of rapid technologically-driven change and ever greater technological power, policymakers need the means to see and prepare for disruptive trends. Come and hear:

Landmark ‘nature’ COP taxis for take-off

Three targets in the Global Biodiversity Framework that could impact our planet's future

As newspaper headlines that warn of the increasing numbers of animal and plant life facing extinction become ever more urgent, delegates have begun to trickle into the Palais de Congres in downtown Montreal for the COP 15 global biodiversity summit under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The building is cordoned off on all sides by an astonishing number of police guarding the streets and patrolling on bike, cars and horseback.

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