At COP15, India pushes for new fund to reverse biodiversity loss

New Delhi, December 18

Calling for an urgent need to create a new and dedicated fund to help developing countries implement a post-2020 global framework to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, India once again reminded the world the principle of “Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities” at COP15 in Montreal.

Addressing the stocktaking plenary at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Canada, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said goals and targets set in the Global Biodiversity Framework should be ambitious and yet realistic and practical.

Set realistic goals

Goals and targets set in the Global Biodiversity Framework should be ambitious, yet realistic and practical. —Bhupender Yadav, Environment Minister

While stressing the importance of agriculture for developing nations, Yadav also told the world that agriculture was a “paramount economic driver” for developing countries and setting numerical global target for pesticide reduction in the agriculture sector was “unnecessary and must be left for countries to decide”.

“For rural communities in developing nations, agriculture is a paramount economic driver and the critical support provided to these sectors cannot be redirected.

“When food security is of paramount importance for developing countries, prescribing numerical targets in pesticide reductions is unnecessary and must be left to countries to decide, based on national circumstances, priorities and capabilities,” he said.

Yadav said biodiversity conservation requires ecosystems to be conserved and restored holistically and in an integrated manner. “It is in this context that ecosystem approaches for conservation of biodiversity need to be adopted rather than nature-based solutions,” he added.

Yadav said successful implementation of a post-2020 global biodiversity framework would depend on the “ways and means we put in place for an equally ambitious ‘resource mobilisation mechanism’”.

“The successful implementation of the framework will squarely depend on the ways and means we put in place for an equally ambitious Resource Mobilisation Mechanism. Hence there is a need to create a new and dedicated mechanism for the provision of financial resources to developing countries. India is committed to working closely with all parties so that we are all able to bring out an ambitious and realistic global biodiversity framework in COP15,” he said.

As the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) negotiate the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), there have been repeated calls for the inclusion of the CBDR principle in finance-related targets.