NOTE: This story was originally posted in December 2019. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, all dates below have been changed or are subject to change.
Over the last few months, the scientific community has repeatedly sounded the alarm on biodiversity breakdown and the climate emergency. Scientists and most governments agree that the world is facing an unprecedented environmental crisis with huge numbers of species on the brink of extinction and global temperatures continuing to rise.
Nature-based solutions offer the best way to achieve human well-being, address climate change and protect the planet. Yet nature is in crisis, as we are losing species at a rate 1,000 times greater than at any other time in recorded human history.
Humans depend for their very survival on stable and healthy ecosystems and urgent action is needed in 2020 to get the world on track to a more sustainable future. This is a “super year” for the environment—a make or break year in which key international meetings will set the tone and agenda for environmental action in the decade ahead.
Here are some of the key international meetings planned for 2020:
15–22 February: The 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP13) will be held in Gandhinagar, India, with the theme: “Migratory species connect the planet and together we welcome them home.”
23–28 February: World Biodiversity Forum, Davos, Switzerland
2–6 June: UN Ocean Conference, Lisbon, Portugal
Co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya and Portugal, the Conference is expected to adopt an intergovernmental declaration on science-based and innovative areas of action, along with a list of voluntary commitments, to support implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 (Life Below Water).
The overarching theme of the Conference is “Scaling Up Ocean Action Based on Science and Innovation for the Implementation of Goal 14: Stocktaking, Partnerships and Solutions”. The meeting takes place three years after the first Ocean Conference.
11–19 June: IUCN World Conservation Congress, Marseilles, France
The congress will seek to harness the solution nature offers to global challenges.
23–28 August: Water and Climate Change: Accelerating Action, Stockholm, Sweden
This year, World Water Week will focus on science and innovation.
15 September: 75th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 75) in New York, with the first day of the high-level General Debate on 22 September. A Biodiversity Leaders’ Summit might take place at the same time and place. These will provide prime opportunities for world leaders to declare that it is no longer acceptable to continue to degrade our planet and that urgent action to restore nature starts now.
27 September: 5th anniversary of the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals
“We are currently almost five years into the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, yet we do not have sufficient data for tracking the environmental dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals,” says Jillian Campbell, a statistician leading UNEP’s work on monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals and co-author of a new study on how citizen science can help us fully achieve the goals.
“In fact, we have insufficient data for tracking global progress for 68 per cent of the environment-related Sustainable Development Goal indicators. We will never be able to monitor the environmental dimension of the Goals using traditional data sources alone,” she adds.
5–10 October [tentative], Kunming, Yunnan, China: UN Biodiversity Conference: “Convention on Biological Diversity COP 15”
COP 15 will review the achievement and delivery of the Convention’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.
COP 15 will also include the 10th Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (Cartagena Protocol COP/MOP 10) and the 4th Meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (Nagoya Protocol COP/MOP 4). They are expected to address a series of issues related to the implementation of the Convention and its Protocols.
As part of the process to develop the post-2020 framework, negotiations will be held in the context of an open-ended intersessional working group, co-chaired by Francis Ogwal (Uganda) and Basile van Havre (Canada). Meetings of the Group are scheduled in Kunming, China, from 24–28 February 2020 and 27–31 July 2020 in Colombia.
9–20 November Glasgow, Scotland, UK: 2020 UN Climate Change Conference: “UNFCCC COP 26”
On the eve of a year in which nations are due to strengthen their Paris climate pledges, UNEP’s annual Emissions Gap Report warns that unless global greenhouse gas emissions fall by 7.6 per cent each year between 2020 and 2030, the world will miss the opportunity to get on track towards the 1.5°C temperature goal of the Paris Agreement.
On current unconditional pledges, the world is heading for a 3.2°C temperature rise. The G20 nations account almost 80 per cent of all emissions, but 15 G20 members have not committed to a timeline for net-zero emissions.
A number of World Days will be an opportunity to highlight the climate and biodiversity emergencies, including:
3 March – World Wildlife Day/Africa Environment Day
22 May – International Day for Biological Diversity
5 June – World Environment Day/European Union Environment Week
8 June – World Oceans Day
