7-19 December 2022 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 15) (Part 2)

This Conference comprises the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the tenth Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (Cartagena Protocol COP/MOP 10), and the fourth Meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (Nagoya Protocol COP/MOP 4). 

CBD COP 15 will review the achievement and delivery of the CBD’s Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. It is also anticipated that the final decision on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework will be taken, together with decisions on related topics including capacity building and resource mobilization. 

The UN Biodiversity Conference was originally scheduled to take place from 15-28 October 2020, in Kunming, China, but was postponed several times as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. On 18 August 2021, the CBD Secretariat announced that COP 15 would take place in two parts. The first part took place in a virtual format, from 11-15 October 2021. The second part of COP 15 was expected to take place face-to-face meeting in Kunming, China. After several date changes, this part was moved to Montreal, Canada. On 21 June 2022, the CBD Secretariat announced:

  • after close consultation among the Government of China as COP President, the Bureau, the Secretariat and the Government of Canada as host of the Secretariat, it has been decided that the second part of the Meetings will take place at the seat of the Secretariat, in Montreal, Canada from 5 to 17 December 2022; and
  • China, as COP 15 President, will continue to preside over the Meetings, with the logo and the theme of COP 15 maintained. China will also convene the High-Level Segment and lead the facilitation of negotiations. To this end, the Government of China has agreed to fund the travel of Ministers from Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States to Canada to participate in the High-Level Segment.

In November 2021, due to the emergence of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus and subsequent travel restrictions announced by some countries, the resumed sessions of the subsidiary bodies were postponed from January to March 2022. The 24th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 24) and the 3rd meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI 3) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as well as the third Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (WG2020-3) took place in person in March 2022.  

Read the SDG Knowledge Hub policy brief on the road to the 2020 UN Biodiversity Conference here. The SDG Knowledge Hub summary of the 2018 UN Biodiversity Conference is here.

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dates: 7-19 December 2022
location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
www: https://www.cbd.int/conferences/2021-2022

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