From December 7th to 19th, 2022, the second part of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) was held in Montreal, Canada. Whereas COP15 was initially supposed to take place in October 2020 in Kunming, China, it was postponed four times due to COVID-19.
Eventually, a first part of the event took place in October 2021 in Kunming, albeit virtually. The second part was hosted by Montreal, home to the Convention on Biological Diversity. In Canada, COP15 gathered delegates from 196 countries.
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity is one of the three Rio Conventions, along with the Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Desertification. They derive from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. All three of them are instrumental to meet sustainable development goals defined in Rio. The UN CBD focuses on the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of the components of biological diversity and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.
COP15 took place only a few weeks after COP27. These two conferences focus on different but interrelated topics. While COP27 addressed climate issues and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the UNFCCC1, COP15 focused on biodiversity under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UN CBD).
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