Conservation of Biodiversity and Nature — a New Priority for Green Agenda

Abstract

The article reviews the drivers and main goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), adopted by 196 countries during COP-15 in December 2022. The overarching aim of the GBF is to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030, in particular restore 30 % of critical biodiversity areas. The targets should be translated into national-level policy concerning governments, global and national environment funds as well as private sector actors, including financial institutions. The GBF isanalyzed in close connection with Paris agreement on climate change 2015 and Sustainable Development Goals. It is shown that a lot of GBF’s actions follow the example of those declared in the Paris agreement. The research is focused on the evaluation of the opportunities and challenges for the realization of GBF. The largest part of its stakeholders considers biodiversity as a unifying concept, that can help reduce the current political polarization that exist in relation to decarbonization in particular and to ESG principals as a whole. But difficulties and barriers also exist. One of them is the complicity of biodiversity impact, because it is not quite clear what to measure and how to measure. Probably the largest problem here is a lack of financial resources allocated to protection of ecological systems, especially in developing countries. So, the author comes to conclusion that despite approval of the aims of the GBF, practical actions taken by governments and business are scarce, and the conservation of biodiversity is seen as priority only in public discussions.