EU Statement – UN General Assembly 2nd Committee: Implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity
Chair,
I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.
The Candidate Countries North Macedonia*, Montenegro*, Albania*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina* and Georgia, as well as Monaco align themselves with this statement.
At the outset, we would like to thank the Facilitator, Mr. Javad Momeni of the Islamic Republic of Iran, for leading the informal consultations. We would also like to thank Colombia, as the host of CBD COP16 in Cali, the Secretariat, and all other partners and delegations who actively participated in the consultations.
The adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022 was a historic deal for nature and a real watershed moment for halting and reversing biodiversity loss. A couple of weeks ago, at COP16 in Colombia, the world came together for the first time to take stock of the Framework’s implementation and to agree on steps for the acceleration of its implementation.
In this year’s consultations, it was our intention to reflect the COP16 outcomes and other important developments in the resolution. Similar to the outcomes of COP16, we believe we succeeded in some areas while others require further work. We specifically welcome the incorporation of references to several key COP16 decisions, as well as the reference to issues on which the resumed COP will still need to decide. We are also pleased with the references to the upcoming 2025 UN Ocean Conference in Nice next year and the 2026 UN Water Conference.
We regret, however, that several important COP16 decisions are not reflected in this resolution, including on climate, on health, and on ecologically or biologically significant marine areas. We also regret that an important operative paragraph with rich language was deleted without a proper discussion, and that numerous other important proposals from our side were not incorporated, including on the Global Stocktake Decision, the BBNJ Agreement, and animal health.
In addition, we are disappointed that the text does not welcome the Summit of the Future, or the Pact for the Future and its annexes, which were adopted by consensus by our leaders and are very relevant for biodiversity protection. Furthermore, we hope that in the future we can agree on the reference to the Paris Agreement in the United Nations Treaty Series. Finally, we believe that biennialisation of this resolution would be inappropriate in light of the biodiversity crisis that the world is facing, as we also repeatedly expressed during the informal consultations.
Chair,
The European Union and its Member States join consensus on this important resolution today.
We will continue to keep the issue of biodiversity high on the international agenda. With only a few years left to reach the 2030 targets, the early, effective and inclusive implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework must remain a priority that unites us all.
I thank you.
* North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.