On 28 October, during the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 16), the UN Environmental Management Group (EMG) organized a high-level roundtable to explore synergistic solutions to the climate crisis, nature loss, desertification, and pollution. The event brought together heads and senior officials of UN agencies and secretariats to explore opportunities and pathways for strengthening the collective response to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.
In opening remarks to the high-level roundtable, Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and EMG Chair, noted the 2020 decision by the UN System Chief Executives Board (CEB) to adopt the UN Common Approach to Biodiversity. Astrid Schomaker, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Executive Secretary, said the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and CBD monitoring and reporting system are mobilizing unprecedented numbers of people, including from business, finance, and the media, in support of biodiversity and sustainable development.
During the discussions, participants shared how their agencies are contributing to the GBF’s goal of peace with nature. In the context of the ‘Rio Trio’ and synergies among the three Rio conventions, a representative of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) emphasized taking advantage of the digital transformation and addressing the asynchronous planning cycles.
Speakers also discussed:
- How the private sector is supporting inclusive and rights-based approaches to protected areas;
- Mainstreaming human rights into the heart of GBF implementation;
- The broad range of human rights affected by biodiversity loss, especially environmental defenders and Indigenous Peoples’ rights defenders;
- Actions related to biodiversity finance, the private sector, and mobilizing funding to support National Biodiversity Strategies and Plan (NBSAP) implementation;
- The need for a comprehensive approach to debt relief, including meaningful debt restructuring;
- Scaling up efforts to address the illegal and unsustainable taking of migratory species and leveraging actions and resources through the Global Partnership on Ecological Connectivity (GPEC);
- How the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is developing and implementing NBSAPs and national wetland policies in a consistent, mutually supporting way;
- De-risking capital in order to reach Indigenous Peoples and communities; and
- Providing direct access to financial resources for women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities.
Addressing the climate crisis as a child rights crisis, a representative of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said one in every four child deaths is an environmental cause-related death and underscored work on innovative, gendered, age-responsive financial tools for child health and well-being in environmental policy, investment, and interventions.
As priorities to take forward to the high-level ministerial meetings, participants’ suggestions included: spending more time interacting; increasing political will; including the voices of young people; anchoring environmental action in human rights; transforming the energy, finance, and food systems; thinking outside the box; using data and evidence in a coherent way; and considering monitoring whether the EMG is really having an impact.
