Razan Al Nuaimi

Source: Emirates News Agency

The UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Her Excellency Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Al Muhairi, participated in the high-level ministerial meeting, as part of the activities of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, recently hosted by Canada, under the theme "Environmental Civilization – Building a Shared Future for All Life Forms".

The meeting highlighted empowering the participating ministers to support the final stages of negotiations related to the global biodiversity framework post-2020, and related decisions that enhance the adoption of an effective global framework.

In her speech, the minister confirmed that the world is witnessing successive and rapid social, economic, and environmental changes, which leave profound effects on most ecosystems globally, and where success in addressing increasing environmental challenges is linked to the ability to strengthen coordination, cooperation, and global partnership to collectively work on protecting the planet and preserving its biodiversity.

The minister called on her counterparts, the ministers participating in the meeting, to provide the necessary support to complete the formulation and adoption of the global biodiversity framework post-2020, contributing to achieving the 2050 vision of the Convention on Biological Diversity and raising the ambition of international commitments to reverse biodiversity loss, as this ensures the sustainability of this diversity and enhances the protection of ecosystems.

The UAE minister also confirmed that the UAE will present, during its hosting of the COP28 Conference of the Parties in 2023, a clear vision and practical measures to enhance the protection of ecosystems, and raise ambition to rely on nature-based solutions to face environmental challenges, praising the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, which was honored by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity for a full decade of pioneering awards for efforts to protect and restore local ecosystems in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, during the conference activities.

Her Excellency Mariam Al Muhairi also participated in a number of important sessions and meetings, including: the second ministerial meeting of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, the high-level ministerial dialogue on biodiversity and climate change, a panel discussion on "How to Ensure the Rapid Implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework Post-2020," the meetings of the international ministerial steering committee HAC 2.0, a dialogue session on reducing the global carbon footprint by half by 2030 (Leaders’ Dialogue on Sustainable Production and Consumption and Circular Economy), and two high-level roundtable meetings organized by the COP28 committee, where the first targeted the link between biodiversity and climate change, and the second the food systems and climate change.

The activities of the 15th Conference of the Parties focused on agreeing to adopt the draft global biodiversity framework post-2020, which was launched in July 2021, where the framework is based on the learnings from the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020, and strongly recognizes the need to adopt urgent measures at the policy and strategic orientation levels nationally, regionally, and globally, to transform social, economic, and financial models into more environmentally friendly models that contribute to addressing the causes of biodiversity loss by 2030, and enable restoring natural ecosystems by 2050.

The conference culminated on its final day with a historic agreement reached by the group of negotiations and discussions held over the past four years, which entails adopting a roadmap that includes among its goals the protection of 30% of the planet by 2030, unifying global work to curb biodiversity and its essential resources' deterioration for humanity, and allocating 30 billion dollars annually in aid to developing countries in their efforts to protect nature.