COP15 Biodiversity conference and COP27 Climate change conference – the what and the why?

In this article, we review what the COP15 and COP27 conferences are all about and why they are important. Furthermore, we reveal how we at Istutapuita.fi are involved in preventing nature loss and global warming.

The COP15 Biodiversity conference was held in Montreal, Canada last December. The world’s decision-makers gathered in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt for the COP27 Climate change conference a month earlier. In both conferences the discussions revolved around the common goals to prevent the loss of nature and global warming together and the measures to achieve those goals.

COP15 Biodiversity conference

One of the key actions of the COP15 Biodiversity conference was to implement the UN Biodiversity Convention, which had already been ratified in 1993. Sadly, the world’s biodiversity has declined, despite the convention. Four long-term goals for the year 2050 were being worked on at the conference. Those goals are:

• Ensuring that terrestrial, inland water and coastal and marine ecosystems are under effective restoration, in order to enhance biodiversity.
• Promoting the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
• Sharing the benefits from the utilization of genetic resources fairly and equitably.
• Financing, reinforcing the implementation, and mainstreaming, i.e. ensuring that biodiversity is included in all areas of politics and society.

In order to achieve these four goals, the meeting discussed 22 targets. For example, an agreement was reached on expanding the protectorates to 30 per cent of the Earth’s surface area. The deadline for these targets is 2030, the year when the world should be nature-positive. That means that biodiversity will no longer decrease and the state of nature will improve.

COP27 Climate change conference

The COP27 Climate change conference focused around making the 2015 Paris climate agreement more tangible. According to this agreement, the increase in the average global temperature must stay under 2 degrees – preferably within safety limits of less than 1.5 degrees. 

The goals of the climate change conference were:

• Containment: Commitment to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels
• Adaptation: Reinforce the global action plan for adapting to climate change.
• Funding: Review progress in mobilizing US$100 billion annually by 2025 to help developing countries address the negative impacts of climate change.
• Cooperation: Ensure appropriate COP27 representation of all relevant stakeholders, especially vulnerable communities.

Unfortunately, an agreement on all goals was not reached in Egypt, and the time to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees is running out. According to the carbon calculator by Helsingin Sanomat, with current emissions, it will only take about seven years to get to that 1.5 degrees.