Statement by David Cooper: Acting Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and to put nature on a path to recovery by 2030.

This is hugely ambitious. It is also necessary – necessary to maintain the web of life on Earth.

It’s also an essential part of climate action and it is fundamental to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Countries are now facing the challenges of implementation.

They have to translate the global Framework to the national level - national targets and national biodiversity strategy and action plans. They need to integrate biodiversity across all decision making and implement the policy measures and concrete actions needed to deliver results by 2030.

They must do this through a whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach, with the full participation of indigenous people, local communities, women, youth, business, and all stakeholders.

To do this, countries need a substantial increase in resources, as was clearly recognized by COP 15, both in Goal D and Target 19 of the Framework itself, and in related decisions on resource mobilization and the financial mechanism.

Agreement on these matters was the most difficult part of the negotiations in Montreal.

But now, I am happy to say, with the ratification and launch of the new GEF GBF Fund, we are moving from agreement to action.

The GBF Fund is uniquely dedicated to support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, its goals and its targets.

It provides an opportunity to receive funding from all sources, quickly disburse through streamlined procedures, with enhanced access for indigenous peoples and local communities, according to their own priorities.

The fund will provide a much-needed increase of support to the LDCs and SIDS while at the same time recognizing the important responsibility of countries with great biodiversity.

The Fund also provides the opportunity for a greatly enhanced involvement of Multilateral Development Banks and Development Finance Institutes, which will facilitate the mainstreaming of biodiversity necessary to implement the Framework.

I would like to express my great appreciation for the prompt actions taken by the GEF Secretariat, by the Council, and now the Assembly, to respond to the request from the Conference of the Parties to establish the new GBF Fund under the GEF.

Further, it is encouraging to see the contributions already announced by Canada and the UK as well as the statements by a number of countries that further pledges will be forthcoming shortly.

We are off to a good start. We now call for further pledges from countries and from other sources so that the first projects under the new Fund can be launched next year ahead of COP 16.

Additional resources will need to be mobilized from domestic sources, at all levels of government, the private sector, and innovative mechanisms. However, it is clear that much of the progress made under the Convention has been enabled by the GEF and the additional resources it has leveraged directly and indirectly.

Now, the launch of the GBF Fund provides additional impetus in moving from agreement to action, to take the steps towards putting biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030.