(Montreal) Montreal could host the UN Biodiversity Conference COP15 in late summer or early fall if the health situation in China does not improve, said the executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, in Montreal on Tuesday afternoon.
Posted at 6:06 p.m.
If the city of Kunming in China is unable to host COP15 on biodiversity, which is due to take place in a few months, the executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity is assessing Montreal’s chances of host the event at “8 out of 10”.
This is what Elizabeth Maruma Mrema replied to the CEO of the Foundation of Greater Montreal, Karel Mayrand, who questioned her on the subject during an exchange organized by the Council on International Relations of Montreal (CORIM).
The 15e Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity began in Kunming, China in the fall of 2021.
The event took place in a hybrid format, that is to say that leaders participated online.
The second part of this conference should take place within a few months, but the health rules and the repeated confinement of large Chinese cities could force the United Nations to find a place other than Kunming.
“I say 8 [chances sur 10]because Montreal is the home of the Secretariat” of the Convention on Biological Diversity, indicated Elizabeth Maruma Mrema speaking of the organization which has its headquarters on Saint-Jacques Street.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, the CBD secretary said that China “remains the number one option”, but as “there is pressure for the COP not to be postponed”, she explained that the United Nations “were starting to look at other options”, and Montreal could be the “default option” if “the government is ready to assume the cost”.
If China were to withdraw, the country that replaced it should “be ready to bear the costs” and organize the event fairly quickly, added the first African woman to have been appointed secretary of the CDB.
Thirty years after the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity at the Rio Earth Summit, the next COP is particularly important, according to Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, in particular because of “recent scientific evidence that biodiversity loss is occurring at an unprecedented and that the loss of biodiversity is also linked to other environmental problems such as pollution, land degradation, climate change”.
During a speech in Montreal on Tuesday, she referred to a particularly alarming report published in 2019 by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which reports to the UN.
More than half a million terrestrial species “have insufficient habitat for their long-term survival” and are at risk of extinction, many within decades, unless their habitats are restored, according to this report.
The rate of species extinction is accelerating, causing serious consequences for human populations and risking “eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life around the world,” said IPBES President Robert Watson when the report was published.
Food waste in a biodiversity event
In an interview with The Canadian Press, the executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity also spoke of the need to “fight against subsidies that harm biodiversity”, such as subsidies for farmers who use certain types of pesticides or subsidies large industrial groups that raise cattle.
A report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) indicates that subsidies to cattle farmers are particularly harmful to biodiversity and efforts to combat climate change.
Ironically, beef was served to diners who traveled to the Westin Hotel in Montreal to hear Elizabeth Maruma Mrema.
A fish starter was also served, but several plates of this gravlax remained on the tables during the event, as some guests did not show up. An event manager told The Canadian Press that the fish dishes in question will unfortunately end up in the garbage.
In March 2021, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) estimated that 17% of the total food available to consumers in 2019 was thrown away in household, shop, restaurant and other food service bins and the UNEP said that to tackle biodiversity loss, “governments and citizens around the world must do their part to reduce food waste”.
In Quebec, various organizations, such as the Quebec Council for Eco-responsible Events (CQEER), facilitate and encourage the organization of sustainable and eco-responsible events.