Most likely caused by a virus spillover from wildlife to humans, the COVID-19 pandemic epitomizes the disastrous consequences that the global biodiversity crisis can have for human health and livelihoods. Scientists have long been warning that disturbed ecosystems facilitate the spreading of viruses, that the risk of contagion grows with increasing human encroachment into wildlife habitats and that accelerating biodiversity loss makes outbreaks of zoonotic disease more likely. Never before has the need for strong global action to halt biodiversity loss been so obvious. By 2022, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are expected to adopt what is currently termed the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework at the CBD’s 15th Conference of the Parties in Kunming, China. What can we expect from this prospective framework? What is needed to ensure its just and effective implementation? And how can the ESG research community support this process? This panel will paint a comprehensive picture of the promises and pitfalls of the envisaged framework and its relevance for transformative change in biodiversity policy and practice. It assembles eminent experts on international biodiversity governance. While they represent different perspectives and approaches, they are united by their hands-on experience in feeding scientific insights into the world of policy making and governance.

Programme

Inputs

The biodiversity-climate-ocean-human rights nexus for the just and effective implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity

• Elisa Morgera, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK, Professor of Global Environmental Law

Commitments, Capacities and Compliance: Expectations at Kunming

• Balakrishna Pisupati, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Head of Biodiversity, Land and Governance Programme

On a crucially necessary road with many glitches, obstacles and unreconciled routeing instructions

• Christine von Weizsäcker, European Network for Ecological Reflection and Action (ECOROPA), President